Back on Back
by Human Person 'I think
Summary: Percy & Annabeth go back to camp and must compete for a prophesy which may possibly 'emit a strong demise' to Dionysus' discontent. But Gods will do anything if betting is involved. Set after BOTL. Percabeth is like the real story, less fat than FF fluff.
1. Back on Back to Camp

**I own no rights to this work. I do think Rick Riordan is AWESOME though. This is my first and only story so please give me any **_**acquired**_** criticism and please Review! For those of you who want more, please vote on my poll for what you want to see in the next chapter. Thanks! As said by zombies, I can always take constructive criticism well! BTW it takes a while to get started. This is just set up so if you already want them to start at camp skip to next chapter.**

Percy's POV

"C'mon Percy! We have to go pick up Annabeth in a half hour!" Someone called through the apartment.

Yeah, I was _really _looking forward that. "NO." I answered. _What is the time even?_ I wondered groggily. It was only 7:30! In my book, _way_ too early to get up. But my mom wouldn't stop giving me that look.

"Fine," I finally gave in, "I'm up now, you happy?" Annabeth and Grover had always claimed that I am _not _a morning person. I scrambled on the first T-shirt I could find, not caring that it hadn't been washed for a while. Then I got on some khaki shorts on and went out, only to find my mom making blue pancakes with a big smile on her face.

"What makes you so happy?" I asked, although I already knew. My mom loved when I went to Camp Half-Blood. Especially having her new boyfriend, Paul Blofis.

"Oh, nothing." She said as her smile got even bigger.

"If you're thinking about Annabeth and me again, drop it. It's never going to happen and you're embarrassing!" Even though I may possibly like her, I'm still not sure and I can't take her obsessing over it. I take it that I had just slipped out of my morning not-uppidness, as my mom liked to call it.

Finally, I finished breakfast and got my bag. I had waited for the time to go to Camp Half-Blood again for a while now. And It's always a plus that Grover might be there. Probably not though.

When we got to Central Park, Annabeth and my meeting spot, she was nowhere to be found.

"Mooooooom? Do you see her? I can't-"

"Always a plus of being able to go invisible." Said a voice from over my shoulder. Of course, not being used to voices randomly springing out of the air, I jumped. Annabeth had taken off her Yankees cap and started laughing hilariously.

"Gods, Wise Girl! You really have to stop doing that!" She was laughing so hard, I doubt she would be able to hear me. Gladly, nobody was actually paying attention to us so nobody saw a girl appearing out of the blue. That would be kinda cool though, you know, If I wasn't already a half-blood and used to that.

"Im-ha-sorry-hoo-Seawe-hahaha!"

_Yeah, laugh at the most important person in Western civilization. Just one of the perks of having a daughter of Athena for a best friend. _I thought. She eventually stopped laughing long enough to get her bags. Being the Awesome Lord of Greatness, I helped her get them to the car.

We were only about 6 miles from Camp Halfblood at this point and as we shuffled into the car with my mom, we were already working on catching up. But the huge smile coming from my mom was too much so I quickly ended the conversation. We got to Camp Halfblood in about 18 minutes seeing as there was definitely not as much traffic as normal.

"Thanks mom!" I said, hoping that would get rid of her easily enough. It didn't.

"I love you sweetie! Be careful and don't get killed over summer!" Not something a normal kid needs to hear before going to a camp. _Though it actually fits in this situation _I thought to myself. Then she started kissing me no less than one hundred times. _Help. Me. Now. _Was the look I shot to Annabeth. Somewhere in that smug smile she sent me back was a _No way, Seaweed Brain! This is too amusing! _What a nice friend, eh?

"'Kay! Bye mom!" I attempted. It worked! She finally pulled away and remembered Annabeth. "Bye Annabeth! Watch him won't you?" She jerked her thumb at me while slipping into the car.

"Sure, Ms. Jackson!" she said while smirking such a '_See that, Seaweed Brain! Even your mom thinks I'm better' _smirk, trying to make me feel small. But actually, I had sprouted up and I was about the same height as her now.

"Let's go up now." I suggested. So we walked up the hill together, worried of how camp may have changed. But it hadn't. The first person to see us was none other than Silena Beauregard. _Oh gods _I thought to myself. Not her again.

"Oh my gods!" she squealed. It was just then that I noticed how odd it might look to the campers having me and Annabeth standing together, shoulder to shoulder at the top of halfblood hill. It wasn't _really _awkward for us but when the campers started to notice, it got there.

But Annabeth didn't move away. _Yep, _said my inner mind, _Home again, home again. _I looked at Annabeth and said "Race ya'?"

"_Oh yeah," _Said Annabeth, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "_I had forgotten that you still had intentions of _winning." And with that she raced down the hill, me close behind. I followed her all the way to the Big House. That's when Chiron saw us.


	2. The Oracle Skips Away

**Disclaimer: If I were a writer that inspired over 6,000 Fan Fiction stories, I'd be at parties, not on Fan Fiction. **

**I fixed the last chapter and all I want to say is that if you have really harsh criticism, please PM me with it. The last chapter was a tad slow, I hope this picks up the story a little bit. Thanks! :)**

Once again, Percy's POV

_...That's when Chiron saw us. _

"Ah. Percy, Annabeth. I see you've found your way here."

"Yes, Chiron." I piped up, "Now what was the hurry to get us here?" I didn't plan on sounding rude but Annabeth nudged me with her elbow anyways. Chiron didn't seem to notice though, so he went on.

"Well, um..." Chiron frowned and looked slightly uneasy, "For starters, the oracle has been acting up..." I snapped my gaze over to Annabeth's as she met mine. If we weren't in such a serious, panicking mood it may have been romantic. _What? _Um...never mind self. Thankfully for my mental sanity Annabeth started again.

"The only time before _ever _that she's done this without being asked for a quest was right before the War of Gods." I shot her a questioning look but she still went on in the urgency, "This is _not_ good."

"I know, young Annabeth, that is why I've called you here. The campers need trained properly," he said, "By you."

I've always been told that I was the best swordsman since Luke but a teacher? With ADHD? I think you see where I'm going. But, and I had no clue why, somehow this was a really important issue. But my thoughts were interrupted by Chiron.

"Ok. That is all I need from you at the moment, you'll start tomorrow." He looked at us in a very thankful way that wasn't like him. "You may want to start practicing today to get a system of teaching together."

There was something about the way he said together that made me smirk. Annabeth caught it on my face and as soon as we left the Big House, of course, she called me out on it.

"Hey Seaweed Brain! What was that for?" She called after me as I was trudging on ahead of her.

"Oh, nothing." I smiled, "Just thinking of the best way to show the kids how to beat up a Wise Girl."

"If only, if only, you didn't have to douse yourself in lake water first." She acted out for me. _Gods, _I thought, _she is so stubborn! _

Just then we came to the cabins. Considering her cabin was the first we came to after coming from the Big House, we both walked into there. I was bored, had no intentions of packing and felt like I needed to catch up a little more about her year. She had IM'd (As in Iris Messaged) me a little bit as things went on. Like when Bobby and Matthew used her favorite architect book for a Hot Wheels monster truck ramp. I guess that's kinda how we got over the whole Luke thing. Considering Chiron called us to camp early, only the kids that stay all year were here and as it turns out, all the Athena kids have lives and were gone.

"Hey Wise Girl?" I asked, hoping that would distract her and she'd talk to me. But it didn't work. She just kept going and mumbled something along the lines of 'what now Seaweed Brain?' but really I didn't notice so I just kept talking.

"Does the all-knowing daughter of Athena know how many people we're going to have to train tomorrow?" I chided. It still seemed as if she didn't care. I could tell she was thinking hard about something. _Probably that no good traitor Luke. _Something inside of me said. _Get over it, Percy _I chided myself. I didn't get an answer. Just then she finished unpacking. Gods, have we really been here that long? Either way, it was time to get to the stadium.

"Hey Wise Girl, time to go train, eh?" She snickered at the chance to make fun of me. Just then she looked at me and I looked back into her gray eyes. I was still tuned into the conversation with something along the lines of her telling me I sounded like a Canadian but I was distracted.

"Let's just get to the stadium okay?" She said.

"Oh- oh yeah, sure!" I stuttered still not full in her conversation.

"What a Seaweed Brain." She muttered. Somehow I got a slight feeling that she was mad at me for something. What on _Olympus _could she get mad at me for? As we were walking up the hill, we didn't really talk much other than the constant 'Wise Girl/ Seaweed Brain' disses.

"Annabeth?" I said quietly. She had that stubborn look in her eyes, the look she gave me after she figured out about Calypso. "Are you mad at me for something?" I caught some panicked glint in her eyes that I noticed as '_oh no. what should I say?_' But she just said "No, Seaweed Brain. Just making a strategy for beating youevery time."

But as we were walking, there was an...unexpected visitor here. The Oracle of Delphi. Suddenly, when her empty, mummy eye sockets turned towards us, green smoke started pouring out of her mouth.

"_When the time has come again,_

_Children of feuding gods compete,_

_Only one can take the win,_

_The other must admit defeat."_

I already didn't like where this was going. There were only two pairs of Gods that were feuding. (Unless you count Apollo and Artemis's "brother/sister rivalry." Then there are 3.) Either way, l was pretty sure that the Oracle was talking about the all famous rivalry of Poseidon and Athena. _Oh crap_.

"_Many trials, easy and hard,_

_But emits a strong demise._

_All's fair in love and war, _

_But only one will get the prize."_

"Now I'm not quite sure why but I think that's a bad sign." I said to Annabeth as the Oracle of Delphi did what a mummy can get away with as walking.

"No joke, Seaweed Brain! I think this is the disaster Chiron saw coming. We have to go tell him Percy." But the whole time she said that, it was as if she was in a trance. I think Poseidon and Athena were the first ones to pop into her head too.

"I guess. Do you want to walk _all the way over there?_" I said chidingly "Or do you want to take the SS Seagod?" _Oh gods, now I sound like I'm stalking her. _Then I made a mental note to IM Aphrodite tonight. What stopped my thoughts was Annabeth's smile at that statement. Instead of telling me that I'm odd or that I creep her out she just smiled big at me (I love it when she does that) and said "Alright Seaweed Brain, I'm up for anything after that visit." She said, pointing to the figure that could be no other than the lurking figure of the Oracle of Delphi.

"Yeah, I guess that was kinda creepy. Actually, that was _really _creepy." But before she could say anything I said, "Follow me." While heading to the water. If anything, this prophecy will make her forget about Luke for a while. Over the summer we decided to put aside our differences on the matter and agreed that he is a 'bad-now-but-used-to-be-the-best-camper-ever-to-come-to-this-camp' type of person. (Though I thought this was a bit over board.) To make Annabeth feel better I told her that there might be a way to get Luke, _just_ Luke, back; evil or not.

_But you don't want that, _that stupid voice in my head said. But this time it had a different voice... _If Luke comes back nice again, will you mean anything to Annabeth anymore? _No matter how much the voice butted in on my thoughts and caused mentally insecure conversations with myself, it did have good points. Every time. And if I didn't think it did, it tried to convince me. It was as stubborn as Annabeth! But I like that about Annabeth (um... I mean, as a frie- oh forget it! the voice is just annoying!) _Hey! _The voice said. _You will _not _talk to me like that! _Gods, now it's as controlling as Annabeth too. But I had an idea on who it was.

_Lady Aphrodite, please get out of my head. Wait!_ I remembered that I was going to IM her. Could save a few drachmas doing it like this. _How do I talk to Annabeth to let her know I might possibly like her more than I origionally planned without sounding really odd? I don't want to ruin our friendship by just telling her so what should I do? _I could swear on the River Styx that something inside my head giggled. Yep, that was Aphrodite alright. _I'm not going to just tell you! That'd be no fun! _And then it went black. All black.

Have you ever had a god in your head? Well if they want to be sneaky then you may not notice them coming in but when they go out, you _feel _it.

"Percy? Peeeeeercy? Gods, I need to get water!" I woke up to Annabeth freaking out at me fainting. I mentally laughed. I could let this go on for a little while. Finally, she came running back with her hands full of water. This was my chance. She was right over me, about to pour the water then... I grabbed her hands and put the water on her. I know that I could have willed the water to just soak her but that would be cheating.

"AaaaAAAAaaah! PERCY! YOU ARE GOING TO **DIE**!" Annabeth screamed.

"I'm guessing that's my cue to run?" I said, but before an answer, I started running at full might. But Annabeth was faster. She caught up to me once I got halfway up the river. I liked to stick close to it just in case she actually _did _decide to kill me.

"C'mon Annie, it was just a joke-." I said soooo unsure of myself. Annabeth did not like getting wet one bit. And she was really caring about me. She had pure worry and I just embarrassed her. Grover and I made a story about the last person who did that to Annabeth and the ending: he never came back to Camp Halfblood again. If you could imagine 2 angry Minotaurs, 3 bloodthirsty hellhounds and a hydra where some idiot decided to cut off its heads until it had over 100 then you can start to imagine the look on Annabeth's face. It's at this time where someone could think her Olympian parent was Bia (God of Violence.)

But somehow, I laughed.

That only made her madder. Now, I was going to die. _Hurry Percy think, think, think. _Then I had an idea. _Brainblast! _First, I willed the water off of her so that she was dry, she was still unphased and charging toward me. Then, I said "I challenge you to a duel!" I said oh so matter of factly, "Whoever wins gets to do whatever they want to the other person." She stumbled a little bit. "One on one fight."

She stopped. That's how I knew I struck gold. If she won, oh gods, not good. But I could deal with anything she threw at me...Literally considering she more than likely _will_ throw things at me. That gives me an idea. "No _real _killing though. I don't think Chiron would like that."

Annabeth just stood there, only a foot away from me, hand on knife and ready to pounce, thinking_. Of course she's thinking. That's all she ever does. _I said to myself. Then, finally she said, "Seaweed Brain, you've got yourself a deal." She was still red with anger but now she was smiling, just thinking which of the many disses she could use at this moment. She ended up using a thing called restraint and didn't say any of them. "When?" was all she asked.

"How about tomorrow, when we're demonstrating how to fight? We get everyone together and show them all what a _real_ fight looks like." She was still too angry to smirk but you could just tell the smugness going on in her head. All I said was no _killing. That _must be why she's smiling.

"We need to make some rules though." I said. She looked kind of hurt that she couldn't cut a few limbs off, but nodded. "Ok. First of all, it doesn't matter how angry you are, NO LIMB LOSS! Blood can only be drawn if it is _absolutely_ needed for winning the battle and what you are going to do to the person as a prize applies any time." I said.

"You are so freaking on." Was what she said back.

'_When the time has come again, _

_Children of feuding gods compete.'_

That was the start of the prophesy.


	3. This is short, I promise

**Hey people! I made a new little thing. I am definitely not getting enough reviews. So, to fix that, I am only going to add chapters if the number of the new chapter (or more ******** ) gets reviewed. I have like 3 reviews so that is a free 3 chapters but if you want to see a chapter 4 I need you to please review. I want to know how my story is going along in the eyes of others. Thanks! BTW, I would prefer you not use swear words in the reviews, even if they are nice like "This is #$% Awesome!" I have to delete those. So without further adieu, this is an excerpt from my next chapter.**

_What even started this fight? _I asked myself, preparing for a full on battle. One of my siblings had come back yesterday and now was helping me with my armor. _One minute Percy fainted and then... _Oh. That's how it went. I guess this was a slight bit of an overreaction on my part but he had been getting on my nerves so much more recently. He's still going to _die _though.

"Oh, young love is my _favorite!!!!!" _squealed a certain Greek goddess who had made my love life miserable just so that Percy and I could become her favorite soap opera.

"Oh, hello. Lady. Aphrodite." I said through gritted teeth. Maybe Poseidon had a feud with my mom and I wasn't supposed to like him but I dislike Aphrodite more than him, Ares and Hades combined. She ranked #3 on the list of hate, right under spiders.

"Hi Annabeth!" she said, trying to sound like one of my best friends. Normally a goddess would say something like 'Hello Annabeth, daughter of Athena' but Aphrodite wasn't a normal goddess.

"Now, um, Aphrodite? Why exactly _are _you here?" I said again. This time I sounded a bit nicer.

She looked at me with warmth and so much anticipation in her eyes. "To help you with Percy of course! I really want to speed some things up."

_Oh gods. Not. A. Freaking. Gain. _


	4. The notsoFinal Countdown

**Hey guys, sorry that the last chapter was just a rant and an excerpt. This is the real thing. Personally, I think this chapter is the best of all so far so please R&R (once again, not rock and roll like I formerly thought. I'm a little slow...) I know this will be rough, my Beta hasn't finished going over it yet. Im not sure if she will... ;) Thanks! Anyhoo, read and enjoy. My shout outs to the readers from India. You guys rock! Also to:**

**Burnup77, gluxaandpercabethluver and percabeth121196-for being the **_**only **_**readers out of 163 so far that reviewed and critiqued my excerpt and former chapters. You rock even harder!**

**Without further adieu, my chapter (finally).**

Annabeth's POV

By the time I got to the Big house, lazy Seaweed Brain had finally decided to go to his cabin and unpack. That was what led me to have to tell Chiron the prophesy. I had already worked out in my mind though:

'_When the time has come again.'_ More than likely the oracle acting up.

'_Children of feuding gods compete.' _ Most definitely Seaweed Brain and I. It's crazy how gods love messing with us. _Especially _Aphrodite.

'_Only one can take the win.' _ I will win, no doubt.

'_The other must admit defeat.' _Seaweed Brain must admit that I am better than him (finally.)

'_Many trials; easy and hard.' _Lots of tests. This is gonna be a _long _week.

'_But emits a strong demise.' _This was definitely bigger than having the other person do whatever you want.

'_All's fair in love and war.' _Um... I was really hoping Percy wouldn't pay too much attention to this line.

'_But only one will win the prize.' _Most likely not the one that gets a 'strong demise.'

So I explained my thoughts to Chiron. Before this, he was in a generally good mood now that the Oracle had gone back. Now, the shadow that crossed his face worried even me. He knew something.

"Annabeth. Don't take this all too harshly, alright?" Chiron actually sounded nervous. That was really unlike him. Now I had goose bumps. "The demise part worries me. This is a lot like brother/sister rivalry except if the Oracle is involved...well...it just has to be more than that."

I bet that Athena herself had no clue how this would turn out.

Either way, I half-mindedly walked to my cabin, thinking about Percy and how I had never been able to fight with him recently. Everyone says that he is the best swordfighter since Luke. What's with that? Everyone is treating Luke like he's dead! Luke is _not _dead, he's just...confused. I mean, if _anyone _never met their father, was forced to go to a camp to learn how to deal with your life being junk because you have to fight monsters and titans and then you meet your dad one day and he doesn't care, wouldn't anyone be confused?

_Percy doesn't think he can be saved. _Those words were the ones that cut through my soul and made me have to think about Percy and Luke. Luke used to be so nice, a lot like Percy but, in a way, in everything a notch up. He was a better fighter, comforter, teacher, and most of all, _friend. _Luke had cared for me and now, he had been taken over by Kronos and was gone. Percy is good at all of those things but, I can't place why, but there was something shielding me from him. But Percy hadn't abandoned me, he was still here.

I finally got to good 'ol cabin 6. I flopped down on my bed and said to myself "Annabeth, I think you are going insane." That made me smile. No matter how great my friends were, I really was the best one to pick myself up when I'm down. _I should probably start getting ready for the fight _I thought to myself. Percy and I had agreed on it being full armor, like a 1 on 1 battle while playing Capture the Flag: Camp Halfblood Edition. It's already-

_Waaauuuuuuump!_

Even though it is the sound I had heard for so long—every day even—I can't explain it very well. That was the sound of the conch.

Percy and I had scheduled the fight for 1:30. Right now it was roughly noon. Lunch ended somewhere around 1. That means that I could get some practicing in if I left lunch...about 25 minutes early! And who really needs an hour to eat lunch? I could take the sacrifice. There was nothing special about lunch other than that I was practically alone at my table. People had started filling in recently but most people were scheduled to come today.

I thought at my table alone about...things. Well, maybe that thing was Percy. I couldn't stand having to compete with him just to have this little prophesy come true! _And what if one of us gets really badly hurt as part of the demise? I couldn't take it!_ But with me thinking, I only half mindedly ate my lunch. This stuff was all hard for me. I don't know why I'm picking today to pity out my life but I knew it had something to do with the prophesy and the Oracle.

When I reached down and nothing was left on the plate but a handful of strawberries, my thoughts bated. I finished my lunch quickly and then left for my cabin. I was really hoping that Percy wouldn't pull the whole 'Oh, if she's going I should go with her' thing again. Just in case, when he saw me leaving I shot him a face that was _supposed _to mean 'don't follow me like normal. It's annoying.' Understanding it or not, thankfully he wanted to finish his lunch so I walked on.

I got back to my cabin to put on my battle armor. I was yapping away with myself in my mind. The curse of Athena: You can _never _stop thinking.

_What even started this fight? _I asked myself, preparing for the full on battle. One of my newer siblings I'd never met had come back yesterday and now was helping me with my armor. _One minute Percy fainted and then... _Oh. That's how it went. I guess this was a slight bit of an overreaction on my part but he had been getting on my nerves so much more recently. I smirked at my evil side—he's still going to _die _though. No amount of liking him can change that fact at this moment.

"Oh, young love is my _favorite!" _squealed a certain Greek goddess who had made my love life miserable just so that Percy and I could become her favorite soap opera.

"Oh, hello. Lady. Aphrodite." I said through gritted teeth. Maybe I was supposed to hate Poseidon because of my mother, but I dislike Aphrodite more than him, Ares and Hades combined. She ranked #3 on the list of hate, right under spiders. **(AN: #1 comes in later in the story)**

"Hi Annabeth!" she said, trying to sound like one of my best friends. Normally a goddess would say something like 'Hello Annabeth, daughter of Athena' but Aphrodite wasn't a normal goddess.

"Now, um, Aphrodite? Why exactly _are _you here?" I said again. This time I sounded a bit nicer.

She looked at me with warmth and so much anticipation in her eyes. "To help you with Percy of course! I really want to speed some things up."

_Oh gods. Not. A-Freaking-Gain. _

"What do you mean 'speed things up?' Percy and I are doing just fine thank you. We're _best friends_ even though my mom hates him." I said matter of factly.

"I know! She can be so uptight!" said Aphrodite. I wasn't going to agree with that. Of course I did in my mind but unlike Aphrodite, I am not a goddess so I would probably get cursed on the spot. "She even told me once to stop Percy from liking you!"

Now I'm normally not slow but this made me do a triple-take. _Did she just say that Percy likes me? Or maybe, _used_ to like me because of my mom. Why couldn't she mind her own relationships? _I was mentally freaking out, in more ways than one. _Slow down, Annabeth. Take this one at a time. _

"Um...Lady Aphrodite? Did Percy _really _like me or are you just trying to make us move along?" I asked. This was the nicest way I could put it. I was actually quite proud of myself.

"Annabeth, Annabeth. Being the Ultimate Goddess of Love (her new nickname for herself, it will never catch on.) I know these kinds of things. The main point of having me know this is so that you don't need to! Now I really need to get going, Ares is getting pumped about your guys' fight. All the gods are. It's the biggest thing us gods can find. I guess Zeus being so uptight takes away all the fun in Olympus."

"Wait! Aphrodite? Before you go, can you just tell me if Percy likes someone else?" I practically screamed at the goddess about to turn into her divine form.

"No, but I'll tell you this. Your mom can not control your relationship with Percy okay? She can force me to deter it with some mortal girl but never can she take away all of your feelings for each other."

I shut my eyes just in time for not burning them out of my eye sockets because of her bright divine form. That would more than likely not be pleasant, or so I was told. _Gods! _I thought, _that pretty much puts a bulldozer sized hole in my practicing time. _Either way, I was going to get there early. Trekking up the hill and across the river (Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go!) in full battle armor was definitely not my favorite thing but the faster I go, the more practicing I get in.

When I finally got to the stadium, nobody was there. I was expecting as much but not even a camper come early to the lesson was here, beating up inanimate objects for practice. _Really makes me think how much I miss Clarisse. _I thought, surprising myself.

My being friends with Percy for years has really helped me in this fight. I know how he fights. _Lunge, parry, roll, lunge, roll, parry, lunge, parry, roll. _It depends what the opponent does though is what makes him react. I came up with a plan to catch him off guard. He always started with a lunge. If I started with a sidestep, but didn't quite roll, he would come forward. I would fake attack him so that he would roll and then while he was on the ground from my low attack I can do my real intention which was getting close and stabbing down instead of lunging at him. (I think I got special help from my mother on that one because of its brilliance, confusion and also because she wanted Percy to die, thinking 'Hey! Why not by her favorite daughter! It'll also get her to stop liking him!') She wanted me to stop liking him so bad that she would make me kill him...

Good plan though!

I had only gotten in about 7 minutes of practice when, people started slowly filing into the room. Many were being forced here to take their lessons on fighting but tons had just come for fun. It made me happy to see that Silena was in the front row, beaming me a big smile. The person next to her was...Beckendorf! He must have just come back today! That made me feel good. At least, until Dionysus walked into the room.

Dionysus has never been a happy man at this camp, ever since he was forced to drink Coke, But today he thought he would get some free entertainment, so he came, fairly amused.

"Where is this Porky? I have better things to do than wait around here all day, just watching for him." I knew the truth was that he really _didn't_ have anything better to do but I wasn't going to say that. I looked at my watch. It was only 1:26. He still had time. _Just like Seaweed Brain to get clueless. _I thought to myself.

If you've noticed by now, I like talking to myself; it's like the only person I can really trust. I guess it really kicked off after Lu-

_BANG! _

Percy no less than forced himself _through _the doors.

"Trying to give yourself a concussion before the battle, Jellyfish?" I belted in his direction. But he wouldn't look at my face. His face was flushed pure white.

"There you are Porky! Finally! What took you so long? I might as well add another week of dishes for wasting my time!" I bet you'll never guess who said _that_.

"Um...unexpected visitor." Was all he would say. _Oh no. did the same thing that happened to me happen to him? Either way, we had made a deal. _

"Hey, Percy," I said running up to him. He looked like he had seen a ghost, which I guess isn't saying much because of the whole ghost _army _we saw last year. But when I came over to him, it added color in just the right places to show that it _did_ have something to do with me. "We had a deal. And in that deal, I, or was it you, said that we won't let a distraction win the battle for either of us. From the looks of it, you're distracted." I said. It would be breaking my deal if he couldn't look at me at all. Plus, it'd be too easy.

"No. We should get this over with today or else they'd be mad." He said. I knew exactly who he was talking about. Not the people in the stands but up on Olympus. _Aphro- freaking- dite! What use does she have rummaging around in our business? _But now it'd be too easy to win.

"Look at me Percy. I want a _real _fight. I won't stop killing you because of your inner Jellyfish-for-brains, alright?" I said. That cheered him up and put some color to his face. "Now come on, we've got a lesson to teach!"

"Ha! If it lasts 5 minutes before I beat your sorry face!" He gloated.

_Yep. He's back. Although I was kind of hoping to win. I had a few things up my sleeve. Oh well, hope my mom's plan doesn't fail me now! _

Chiron started off the battle by explaining why we were all here. That was mainly for the people who were forced to come, but more power to the ones who came at their own will! Nothing else to do really. Then he explained the rules. Dionysus almost left after he said 'No limb loss' but then he realized the boringness would start to get at him if he did.

And with that, Chiron let us say, just in case it came to it, any last battle words that we had for each other.

"Percy?" I asked, hoping to throw him off guard. It worked. He lowered his weapon a little bit. Anyone could tell that he was surprised that I would actually say something and thought it would be important.

"What?" he asked concerned. _Thanks for the advice Aphrodite! _

"You're going to die." I said in my sweetest voice. I had totally caught him off guard and lunged before he could. That confused him. He almost always lunged first. _Just like chess! _I noticed, _once someone has had their strategy messed up, they have to think every step through carefully. _I modified my plan. I had to keep him off step of what he normally did. If he got back into the 'lunge, parry, roll' sequence again, he would think faster.

_Chlink!_

Oh how I love that sound. Normally, when you read about sword fights the sword makes a _clash _sound. Those are only in good sword fights. _Chlink _is when they get their sword out just barely fast enough to save themselves.

Because of my normal fighting with a dagger, but having this be a _sword _fighting lesson for the campers, I was allowed two weapons. The sword for the lesson and the dagger for the win. But if he had unarmed me, I couldn't pull out the dagger, he would have won.

But he hadn't yet. His sword touched mine with our faces next to our blades, so close that I could... no. This wasn't right. He was trying to do that.

"What are you pulling Seaweed Brain?" I yelled through the clinking of the swords. That smirk on his face made me think twice about every move that I made. But thinking is too slow! I had just been subjected to a major backfire. Now I was mad.

"Oh, nothing that a wonderful daughter of Athena wouldn't know." He belted back. _Did he just call me...no. He _must _have been being sarcastic. _

"As a matter of fact, I do, Jellyfish, and it might be the only smart thing you've ever done in your life." I screamed, "Congrats on thinking for once!"

He was just recovering from his side-step and going into a lunge when I saw a chink in his armor. Right there, between the shoulder plate and the arm armor. There was a small spot in the armor that he hadn't attached right. Perfect to chop of- never mind. That's not allowed. But perhaps...

"Please mother, help me now." I said as a silent prayer to myself. "Help this work."

Percy lunged. I did something like catching on part of his blade and swinging it towards mine until the flats of the blades were right next to each other. Riptide was being held against my chest and my blade was on the other side of it, pinning Riptide. Percy was still holding onto it but backed up quite a bit from his and my blade. I leaned in. In this position, Percy couldn't pull any fast ones on me without me noticing. He seemed to notice and came up to his blade too, his breath on my face. The blades were making no sound, neither was the crowd. It was just me and Percy fighting in this little bubble. I was so close to him that I could whisper in his ear.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain. You know I just came up with a great plan to win right?"

"Just remember that we're being teachers." Said Percy seriously, "And that I'm gonna kick your butt into Hades." He smiled.

"Oh really?" I argued.

"Yes, now can we get back to fighting?" He said, a bit annoyed.

_Perfect, that takes some of his attention from himself and onto waiting for me. _"I'm parrying you aren't I? You're kind of helpless right now." I said to his eyes (which I was slightly lost in) more than to him.

Then he pulled his blade out with the scraping sound of metal and tried to jab it at my throat for a win. I ducked, which he wasn't expecting. Then, when he was drawing the blade back, I shoved the dagger into the chink in the armor so that it separated the pieces but didn't get Percy. His right arm couldn't move much anymore. He switched his fighting hand to his left, but considering he wasn't ambidextrous, he would be constantly paralyzed in the battle.

While he was doing this, just to tick him off, I yelled to the crowd "And that is one way to affirm a win. Paralyze as much of your opponent as possible, whether it be a leg or an arm, it will constantly help you!"

"Yeah, make fun of the cripple." He said, not to the crowd, just to me. "You always do." But he was smiling at me big. He was trying to distract me from winning so that he had time to take the dagger out. But it wasn't going to. All I had to do now was...

"Ahg!" I heard myself scream as I was rocketed backwards. I looked at my chest plate. There was a large gash in it from where Riptide had hit me. While I was falling through the air, I thought I heard Percy mumble "Yep, I think the left hand will work for me nicely." I hit the floor. Percy was actually gaining. But I stood up. "Ehhhgg..." I said; I was hurt all over. Percy was already over me. Giving up trying to stand up, I fell back down to the floor and rolled. Then, when Percy was right over me, I jabbed up. It hit his chest plate but he was unphased. He brought Riptide over my throat and said "Trial one, point Percy." With just a huge...Percy smile on his face. He had a laughing tone in his voice that made me think he would break out in some victory dance sooner or later. But instead he helped me up.

"Don't get used to it, Seaweed Brain." I said, with a gruff tone in my voice. He just smiled again.

"Just easy tohard trials." He said. _Oh crap! _I thought. I didn't think of that. Does that mean that this was an _easy _trial? If it does...then I don't think I'm going to win.

"Do you want your dagger back?" He asked. It was still in his shoulder plate.

"Um...yeah? That's kinda my weapon!" Was all I said. He proceeded in taking off the top part of his armor. It's not supposed to be awkward, like just taking off a coat or something, but there was still a crowd. _Watching. _

"Oh gods." I mumbled, to myself. I tried not to look at the audience and just look at Percy, but he was having problems getting the neck strap off.

"Hey, Annabeth," He cajoled, "Can you please help me. I can't get it off and I think it's starting to cut off circulation to my head." He said more than hurriedly.

"Why? Not like you can go through any _more _brain damage." I said, but I helped it off of him anyways. I could just hear Silena's squeal inside my head.

We finally got it off of him and got my dagger back. But _he_ had it in his hands, not me. That's when I remembered the prize for the winner. _Oh gods, what is he going to have me do now? _Well, it's good for any time so he may not even cash it in soon! I tried to cheer myself up. It was no good. He decided to rub in his victory. He got down on his knees, kneeled his head and presented me the knife like a servant.

"To Grand Loser Annabeth." He said. Geez Percy can be so annoying. He stood up with all but his shoulder armor on. It looked odd. But just as he started teasing me some more, there was a new kid that I didn't recognize who came up to me and Percy went away.

"Annabeth, I'm guessing?" He said.

A million things were running through my mind right now. But the most prominent one was 'Oh my gods, he looks like Percy!' It was true. Percy had grown and was now a little taller than me where this guy was my same height. He had black hair, grown out like Percy's but not quite as messy and green eyes. But Percy's eyes were a deep, sea green. His were a lighter, more foresty color. I had always thought that Percy was cute but this just carries on the tradition. The little thought screaming in the back of my head was 'Annabeth, he's talking to you. You can talk back already!'

"Um...yeah?"I asked.

"Good, so that is your name. I only guessed because of all the nicknames," he jerked his thumb toward Seaweed Brain who couldn't hear our conversation because he was speaking with his own friends. And getting...drachmas? He bet on himself winning? More importantly, he bet against _me? _What would make him so sure about that? Travis and Conner had bet on me though. His talking interrupted my train of thinking. "I'm new here and I am definitely going to need some extra help with my sword fighting. You _are _the teacher, right?"

"Yeah, um, me and Percy teach the class." Oh no. Did I just say _me _and_ Percy _instead of _Percy _and _I? _I only ever make these mistakes around Seaweed Brain himself. I can't...

"Yeah. No offence to him or anything but he doesn't seem like the nice teacher type, if you know what I mean. Does he always act this serious about it?" He asked.

"No. Just around me. He _always _just_ has_ to beat me." I said. It was true though, he just did.

"Yeah, so when can I get some special help? I've only been here for about a week and I think I'm going to need big-time extra training. You in?" He asked. But the tone of voice made it sound like he was making a date or something.

"Sure. When do you want to start? I can go from well, now pretty much to a long time this week." I sounded nervous and I knew it I don't think he noticed though.

"Just as soon as this um...Percy gets off your back." He said. He already didn't like him and I think I knew why. I almost smiled. But I had business to take care of.

"Ok, bye um..."

"Riku." He said. That actually was a nice name. Riku and Percy. Judging from the looks, more than likely a son of Caerus. But that didn't matter right now. I just ran over to yell at Percy.

"PERCY! YOU BET ON YOURSELF?" I screamed at him.

"Yep. And I won so I guess it was a good bet." He said. He sounded so 'matter of fact, I'm right, you're wrong' that I just threw my head back in frustration. I mumbled something that not even I could hear.

"Annabeth," he said, slightly concealing a smirk, "I think it's time to talk prizes."

**Oh no! What will Annabeth have to do? And what's with this Riku dude? Does he like Annabeth? Will Annabeth like him back? **_**Is there more to the prophesy that Percy and Annabeth didn't hear? **_**Answers in: the next chapter! It will be shorter than this, I promise. By the way, I know this was rough; my Beta hasn't gotten back to me yet. If you don't understand something, don't fear, I'm revising it as soon as she gets back to me! Still, I think this chapter was my best so far so I expect a TON of reviews! I really don't care about flames. Some people say they can make pudding. I DON'T GET THAT! Maybe only that Jello pudding that stays in the cup even after you turn it upside down and shake it. (Please don't ask how I figured that out. Trial, error and Milano cookies. Yum.)**


	5. Some Rikabeth and COOKE!

**I really hope you guys liked the last chapter! If that was my main action, this will more than likely end up being my most "explanation" chapter. Just to explain, Brooke is an OC who I made up. Daughter of Aphrodite and been at camp for 2 years. And yes. She does bring you-do-not-know-who into some trouble with the others at her cabin... Confusing and partially written from an odd POV. R&R! :)**

Riku's POV

When that no good _Perseus_left, Annabeth came over to me.

"Well, I guess it's time to find you a sword." She said. She seemed kind of jittery. I hope that it was because of me and not just because of the battle. Annabeth's cute. **(AN: Yeah, Riku is blunt, strait to the point, and likes Annabeth. Horrible combination for Percy, eh?)**

"Yeah, I guess. Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Oh, it's just that you look a _lot_like my best friend Percy." She said. So it _was_ about me.

"I'm not sure if that's a complement or an insult." I said. She laughed. Then she threw a sword at me.

"Geez Annabeth! I was NOT expecting a sword to hurtle at my face! But really, who does?" I said. She laughed again.

"Just pick it up," she said laughing "and tell me how it feels." It was so easy to make her laugh. _I think I can do this._I said to myself

"It feels...cold and sword-like. Not much really. A moderate amount of balance, kind of," I wiggled it, "um...flimsy and well, not really me." I said. She was smiling. I guess what I just said was pretty smart.

"Good choice. That's our tester to see if you can pick out your own sword. When you find one, I'll be right over there." She said, motioning toward an upturned bucket to sit on.

It was a while before I found one that I liked. I can't say why I liked it. I felt like in battle it would protect me. Once I got Annabeth to teach me how to use it at least. I walked over to her, wiping off her dagger.

"I found it, I think." I said. She just looked at me with a look like she approved of me or something.

"You must turn out to be pretty good." She said. I had no clue what she was saying so I gave her a questioning look. "Oh. You know how some people say that you don't pick the story, the story picks you? Well it's the same sort of thing with swords, some of them just...feel right for no apparent reason but in actuality, _they_ approve of _you_, not the other way around. But, you have to wait until first battle to figure out if it truly approves or not." That made me feel important.

"What's so special about this sword?" I asked. I wondered what it took to get a sword to like you. I also wondered what it took to get Annabeth to like you. Maybe the sword could help.

"Well, that's one of the best swords in the pile. Ήλιοςίσκιος'. **(AN: I made that name myself. I know a little Greek so when you say it it's said Heliosithkios. I just wanted to put it in the Greek writing for fun. That'll probably be what they call it in Greek the rest of the time.)** When kids want it, it doesn't want them. It's very picky but I guess it found its match." She smiled up at me from where she was sitting.

"Does um... Heliosithkios mean anything in Greek? I mean, Chiron told me I'd have to learn that sooner or later anyways." I said. Annabeth looked smart. She smiled at my thought and how she was asked a question. I'm guessing she likes that.

"Yeah. Helios means sun and Ithkios means shadow. Heliosithkios means 'sun-shadow'. It's actually a very special sword combining two opposites. Pure celestial bronze covered in a layer of Stygian iron. Most kids want it because of the Stygian iron. Not many swords have that. The only other demigod I know of that has it is Nico, and that's because he's the son of Hades. This sword has just about no history of users behind it though. It was covered in Stygian iron by Aeneas when he visited the Underworld to see his father. Considering he didn't return, I'm guessing that it was given to the camp by Sibyl, his tour guide." She said. I did not follow that one bit. But I guess I did find it funny.

"So you're telling me that there's a tour guide to the Underworld?" I started laughing, "I'm not sure I want to know what happened to her!" Then Annabeth started laughing too. She was surprised that I was actually listening to her. I'm guessing this Percy guy doesn't. Now was my time to show her I was better.

"Wow Annabeth. Do you know everything?" I asked. She was still smiling from our short laughter session. Her eyes were in those tears that you get after laughing or yawning.

"Pretty much!" she said. She deserved so much better than that low-life Percy. I mean the way he teased her...

"I'm going to guess that choosing a sword is all the farther I'm going to get today?"

"Well, we don't really have time for much else." Annabeth said. She actually sounded sad. I liked that. I think I'm starting to work my charm on her. Then I thought of something.

"Annabeth, do you have a computer?" I asked. This could be it.

"Um...yeah. Daedalus's laptop, why?" she asked. She really had no clue where this was going.

"Will you meet me online at a chat site tonight?" I asked. "I just feel like I have so much to learn from you." I said. I know I sounded like a suck-up but I just...wanted to spend all my time with her.

"..." She was hesitating. I knew I hit the border now. "Yeah, sure. As long as my 'dare' isn't in effect tonight. I doubt it will be though. What do you think he'll make me do?" She asked. You could tell she didn't like having her social life in the hands of this Percy guy. I didn't blame her. But at the same time she wanted this to happen.

"Well, I don't know him very well but if I were him...I would not be able to think of my own dare." I said.

"C'mon. He's not _that_much of an idiot...Or at least _he_says so!" She said. I really do think she is starting to like me.

"Well, who are the best pranksters here?" I asked. "I heard to watch out for these two brothers but the name escapes me."

"THE STOLLS!" she screamed. Then she started running away. "Gotta go, talk to you tonight!" she said.

For once, I felt good.

Annabeth POV

"Huuuh!" I gasped. The _Stolls!_Oh those boneheads, I forgot about them! Hopefully it's not too late...

"Gotta go, talk to you tonight!" I yelled back to Riku. You know, he's just like Percy but he actually _listens._I won't forget to meet him on the computer tonight. Never. I want to see his personality. I'm really starting to think that he is Percy's clone.

I headed down to cabin 11, that wacko hut they call the Hermes Cabin. I knocked. Travis opened the door. _Only_Travis. Oh no, Percy and Connor are probably already in the back...

"Am I too late?" I asked. Travis knew just what I was talking about. Then he smiled.

"Well, Percy did come here...but Connor was busy stalking Brooke." Travis was saying. That _must_have been a dare. Brooke Rianna Giovaldi was the 2nd preppiest prep in the Aphrodite cabin. I _must_save him.

"Is he still there? Does he need help? What are they doing to him?" I asked. Travis stopped.

"I actually...don't know..." he said.

"Okay! Bye!" I said. I had a little plan. I wasn't too late; Percy had been stood up for Brooke. If I saved Connor from that _place_then he would owe me and wouldn't help Percy! Now all I have to do is get in there and help him.

That was easier said than done.

Cabin 10 (Aphrodite) was definitely...not my type. It was full of make-up and mirrors and 'hot/stylish' clothes. Yet, against myself, I knocked on the door. I heard some gasps, some anticipating squeals and one, Connorly 'ugh.'

The head of the cabin, Silena answered the door. "Oh! Annabeth! Come in!" She said with a big smile on her face. Aphrodite liked me (mostly because she could mess with me) and I guess it passed on. Any time I saw an Aphrodite cabin child, they smiled and said hi. If I was anyone else, I more than likely would have gotten passed up. I could tell that Silena was happy I was here.

But I walked in. Just like last time, there were the same people there. But I thought I saw a little mass of people toward the back of the cabin.

"Silena, what's going on back there?" I asked. I had a feeling it had something to do with Connor's disappearance into this place.

She smiled weakly. "Yeah, I thought someone would come to take him away some time soon." She said.

I tried to cheer her up. "All I need is a bribe then I'm out."

""Yayz!" She said. She was really happy about whatever Connor was here for. She led me to the back of the cabin.

"Connor?" I asked. _Oh gods. Why don't I have a camera?_

"Um...Annabeth? Please don't tell anyone. I-It's not my choice! _They_did this to me!" He said. You could tell that he had been previously enjoying this though.

"Oh come on! You know you wanted it!" Said Silena. She was grinning ear to ear. I finally took a good look at Connor...or what I thought was him. He was wearing what you'd expect the leader of Green Day to wear. To any normal Aphrodite girl...he would be considered hot. I didn't think so though. He was still Connor.

"Is this for Brooke?" I asked. I got all yeses except for one loud 'NO!' and a flushed face. That one was from Connor. Then I had an idea that cost me almost nothing.

"Hey Connor," I said smiling a conniving smile, "I won't tell anybody as long as you don't help Percy with an idea of what to do to me."

"DEAL!" he said, sounding relived.

"Ok. That's all I needed. You can resume your work girls. Hope Brooke likes it!" I said. Just then, Brooke Rianna Giovaldi walked into the cabin and the Aphrodite girls scattered leaving a confused looking Connor in the middle of the room.

"O...kay? Um... What _exactly_is going on in here?" Brooke said, seemingly identically confused. Before Connor could object, Silena piped up.

"Well, there's this _ci-ute_guy here and he says he likes you." Silena said. Brooke's face flushed.

"N-no! I never _said_that!" He said. It's true. He never has said it aloud but everyone knew it was true. Brooke's face was now almost completely white. She piped up for the first time.

"Do you?" she asked. _Oh no. Did she like him back?_

"Well, um..." Connor said.

Brooke put him out of his answering misery and got into the famous Aphrodite judging pose. "Well... he _is_cute..." she said. I really had no clue where she was going with this. "Well, seeing that there's no one else in this bloody camp that I like, I'll give him a try." She said. Then she put a smile on. "Do you want to?" she asked. _Well, duh he wants to you idiot!_

"Sure, why not?" Connor said, and he walked out with his new girlfriend. I decided it would be best to leave too, before they tried giving me a makeover. I walked back to the Hermes cabin.

"Well, Connor has a girlfriend." Was all I said. This little spat made me think of Percy and Riku and which one I liked more. An hour later, I had come to a decision.

**Ok, I lied. This didn't answer all of the questions and got off topic which is why I'm calling it a need-to-read filler. Sort of cliffy at the end.**


	6. I Forget But Thankfully do NOT Blow Up

**Yeah, I kinda forgot to put the beginning of this in the last chapter so...yeah. It's here. Everyone please say a little hello and thank you to AnaklusmosRiptide! Don't ask why, just admire her! **_Why thank you very much!_ (I felt like keeping this in. IDK why. If you can tell, she's my new, very grammatical Beta!)**This chapter my shout out goes to... I'm debating between Hong Kong and Canada. The Hong Kongers are new readers but Canadians have stuck with me so long...Well, it now goes to both :D In very simplified Greeklish, kepsalaio ezi (and at first I thought it was only chapter 4! I didn't realize it was chapter 6 already!). **

Percy POV

_OH__ YES! _Was the thought going through my mind. I had just won a battle, _the _battle, against Annabeth. Most people forget that Athena is also the goddess of battle and that passed over to Annabeth. But that wasn't the point. I smirked. I get to make Annabeth do whatever I want.

This has _got _to be embarrassing for her.

I guess she already got it by; A- losing; and B- finding that people bet on me. Even I got twenty drachmas from the Stolls.

_THE STOLLS! _I thought. I know I _said_ that I had a perfect thing for Annabeth to do, but in truth, I had no clue. But I bet the Stolls had an idea. I ran over to cabin eleven, hoping they'd be there. That's when I saw a rare event; Travis was there but Connor was gone.

"Hey Percy," said Travis. He looked like he was about to break out laughing.

"Um... Travis? Where's Connor?" I knew I hit the spot—Travis decided to collapse on the floor laughing. I tried to help but he couldn't stop.

"Okay," I belted, walking into the cabin. "Does anybody know where Connor is?"

There were only about four people who didn't burst into spontaneous laughter. They looked new, so they must not have known Connor. Hey, ignorance is bliss!

"He went to find some girl from the Aphrodite cabin. I think he likes her," one of them said, utterly confused. They didn't get how stupid that was. I found myself on the floor, rolling in the direction of Travis, laughing. Connor likes an Aphrodite girl!

I finally got up and left that messed-up place they call the Hermes cabin and went to the beach. There really was no point to it, other than to relax. Normally, classes would be going on, but it was before the official (start/season) only one or the other of Camp Half-Blood.

I had taken my iPod to camp this year and I had it in my pocket. My mom and I had made a perfect playlist for it. It had all of my songs and then my mom added some that she said I may or may not like. I decided today to go through them. I stuck the headphones in my ears and lied down the beach. The player was set to shuffle so I just put it on the sand next to me and shut my eyes.

The first song was _Some Might Say _by Oasis. It was a _really_ good song, I listened to a lot of it but there was just too much on my mind. Then _Faint _by Linkin Park came on. This band always reminded me of Luke. I don't really know how, but it actually made me really want to rock out.

"_I can't feeeeeeel, the way I did before. _

_Don't turn your back on me, I won't be ignored!"_ I belted out. What? I like to rock out to some songs.

"_Time won't h__eeeeal this damage anymore, _

_Don't turn your back on me, I won't be ignored!"_

I was quickly snapped back into reality by a very familiar laugh behind me.

"Once again, I _really _need a video camera," stated the only person I call Wise Girl.

"Don't get used to hearing this beautiful voice too often," I bragged. She laughed.

"I wanna hear some of your music," she said. Oh, no. I don't know what kind of stuff is on here but I was guessing that Annabeth would never leave me be so I took out a headphone and gave it to her.

"Here, but don't blame me if some of my music is bad. My mom helped me with it," I protested. I skipped to the next song so that she didn't have to start in the middle of one. Due to the humming, I inferred that she liked it. I don't blame her, it was a good song. I never really knew that she was into music. Once she started subtly shaking her head to the music, I was convinced. I wished I could stay here forever.

Let me explain.

Headphones...they don't stretch so far as they weren't meant for sharing. When you share ear buds with someone you have to get really close. Annabeth and I were sharing headphones. Although I'd almost never admit it, I might like Annabeth. I like being close to her. Once I got to camp, she was my rock. At home, my mom would take care of me, but inside I just knew that Annabeth would do anything to save me.

But then Rachel came into this whole kit and kaboodle.

And now Riku is here too.

Somehow, I needed to know how she felt about him. _You've never even said a word to __him, _my inner voice nagged. _Y__ou__ don't know what he's like. He could be the hugest friket in the world and you would still be paranoid! _It said. (Told you it likes to nag). Just... the only time I had ever seen him was when he and Annabeth were talking and I had glanced back at her. She was blushing when he was talking. It made me feel like a failure. I've known and talked to her for over four years now, and only a few times made her blush! Now this new guy comes along and just...tries to ruin what Annabeth and I have? I mean, Annabeth and I don't really have anything but if Riku came in...Well...I think we'd drift apart. I turned off my iPod subtly.

"No! It's out of battery _again__?__" _I whimpered with added drama. She just rolled her eyes.

"Couldn't bother to charge it at all?" she asked while rolling her eyes. "But by the few songs I heard, you have pretty good taste, Seaweed brain."

"I know we've been here for however many days but I still feel like I haven't heard all about your summer. How's it going with your step-mom?" I inquired. I didn't really need to know but I kind of wanted to ease her into the topic of Riku. I knew talking about this won't really help the cause of not liking him but I was willing to risk it.

"Well, it's kind of a not-so-adore/hate thing. One day, she's being all nice and cool, _finally _understanding my want to be alone sometimes and then the next, she's yelling at me because I don't spend enough _time _with her. I swear, she's bipolar! She doesn't get the fact that I already have a mom that I love. She blames her for abandoning me, even though I can call her from wherever I want and she'll normally be right there in a heartbeat." This is really starting to turn into a lecture. Annabeth doesn't really talk about her feelings much, though, so it'd be horrible of me to stop her. Even though I can't imagine anyone really _loving _Athena as their mom. "Yep, that's pretty much our story. I mean, there'd be nothing against her if she listened to me, but considering that she doesn't...well...we just don't get along."

Annabeth normally got along with almost everyone who she didn't kill! This wasn't really normal for her. Jina must really be giving her grief.

"I'm really sorry to hear that. I was really hoping that she'd be smart and understand you," I said. I really had hoped it. Was it because I had something against Athena? Mostly.

"Thanks. So how's your life?" she asked, lying down on the sand now. I would estimate it was about 6:30 and today was the dinner buffet—the one to commemorate the win of the first Titans vs. Olympians war. That pretty much meant that you could eat whenever you want. We could stay here for a while.

"Same as usual. Mom's nice, still almost no visits from Dad." Yes, by that I did mean Poseidon. "Mostly good except Goode is a living Hades and Rachel just made me her stupid _muse_," I said. Not that I didn't like Rachel, and I'm sure that we both really like each other, but recently during school, she'd been spending almost _too _much time with me. I still really liked her. Outgoing, smart, she gained my respect with that blue hairbrush hurling at Kronos a while ago. But...every time I was around her, I felt...normal. Almost _too _normal.

I watched Annabeth's head perk up at the sound of that. "You mean...you know..." She left it at that, hoping I'd get what she meant. Hey! I'm not called Seaweed Brain for nothing!

"Sometimes I wonder if you forget why you call me Seaweed Brain, Jellyfish and Kelp-for-Brains," I said, shaking my head. She chuckled. Sometimes I wondered what her giggle sounded like. She never giggled. She also had never been straight to the point and had no intention of it now.

"It's nothing. Stupid question. I know that you still like her," she sighed. _... _My slow-as-a-jetlag brain was trying to comprehend this. _...What? She _still _thinks I like Rachel? Not that I don't, I really do but...Annabeth shouldn't hate her just for that. _She still had it all wrong though! Rachel was more of a slightly-more-than-friend. Nothing to be worried about. Right?

"Annabeth? I do _not _like Rachel. You and only about three other people think that I do! Why? I mean, yeah she makes me feel normal but..." _But not the way you make me feel _I wanted to say_. _I could pour out my feelings about Annabeth right here and now. But I was a coward and couldn't. "Just...no. The thought actually scares me a little!" Laughing, Annabeth looked contemplating. She looked like a great weight was lifted off her shoulders just to put a new one on. Then, I couldn't think and I had no time to think why I couldn't think. Then I registered her smile, splayed across her lips. It was all alright.

Annabeth POV:

"_Annabeth, I do NOT like Rachel..." _My mind works fast and nimble but this was harder than any other of my riddle books. At first I thought, _Oh, __my gods. He actually just admitted that he didn't like Rachel__!_Second was, _Oh,__ no, I was wrong. My deductive skills were __wrong. _Then I remembered, you can never count Percy into an equation. He's just too much of a variable. Then I thought about Riku. I barely know him—yet...something...draws me to him. And he_ always_listened to me. Even when I went into my deep knowledge, explaining his sword. I was confused.

Yet, a smile drew up my lips. I guess, inside, I was truly happy.

Not for long though. Judging from the sun it was about 7:40. I could stay on the beach forever.

Or not.

Because then it popped back into my head. _NO! I was supposed to meet Riku online f__orty __minutes ago!_ I just really hoped that he would be staying by his computer for me. I didn't want to leave Percy but I had to.

"Percy," I said, standing up, "thanks. This actually cleared up my mind a little bit. But I have to go."

"Why?" he asked. He truly looked worried by the expression on my face.

"Um..." I couldn't tell him the truth now. But I had to. "Riku wanted me to meet him online and I'm really late since I was sitting here with you." Then he looked sad.

"Tell him I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to be a nuisance." He was actually sad-looking.

"_I'm_ not sorry. You're great Percy," I admitted. And with that I ran back to my cabin.

I turned on my computer right when I got inside. When I finally logged on the Camp Half-Blood chat site nobody was in 'WiseGirl42''s chat room. But there was this displaying on the screen:

**Messages received while offline:**

**From: Lucky-boy42**

_Hey, Annabeth. I guess you're out right now but I really wanted to talk to you about something. One day, the day I came, this freaky hippie-mummy thing walked up to me. It said some poem and walked away. I talked to Chiron, as he was the only one I knew here so far. He told me something about you, Percy and a prophesy. That's what I wanted to talk to you about._

_You didn't hear the whole thing._

**Ooohs! Cliffy! I know that the beginning of the chapter had little purpose but... I just felt it should be put there as I forgot to put it in the last chapter. :D Oopsies! Please review, It makes me feel special! BTW, I want to thank 2lexi for constantly reviewing. All the rest of you, don't think you can subscribe, leave one review on a random chapter and get away with it! I swallow reviews. I am a hungry monster. If you do not review, I will eat you instead! :) **


	7. 2 in 1! I sound like a horrible ad!

**I'M BACK FROM OHIO! This is one of those stories that you have to read slowly and let the words marinate in your head. You could read this chapter in less than 10 minutes. But try to let the words soak in or you won't understand the last part of this. It's like when you skim a part of a book and get this.**

'"_**Where are we going?" Clover whispered.**_

"_**Go up."Geth said.**_

_**...skimming...**_

"_**Look away!"**_

"_**Let me burn!"**_

"_**I'm trying!"' **_

**You may be confused thinking '**_**What? Geth isn't on fire! When did he catch on fire?' **_**Because you don't know that it was **_**candles**_** talking. BTW, that came from Leven Thumps. **

Annabeth POV:

I sat there, completely frozen at what was going on around me. Today could be one of the best days of camp or one of my worst. Did the Percy not liking Rachel weigh out the feuding prophesy? No. No matter how much I like Percy, It's just... hormones? If anything.

I mentally slapped myself. I do _not _need to be focusing on all this! I need to be prepared!

But the truth is, nobody actually knows when or what the next challenge is. Not even me. But maybe...

Riku.

Everything in my life at that point kept revolving around to him. But at this point in time all I needed to do was find him. That shouldn't be _too _hard considering I knew his ca—

_Waaaauuuuummmmp!_

Also considering that humans have to eat and now it was breakfast.

As I walked up the last few stairs to the cafeteria, I scanned everywhere around me for Riku, only to find that he wasn't at the Hermes table. I would have heard if he got claimed. He's probably just standing around so I went to ask Percy.

"Hey Perce, Have you seen Riku?" I asked him, turning him around.

"Well, 'Perce' is an odd nickname for someone who's name is Riku don't you think?" Inquired the alleged Percy jokingly. "But I think you found Riku yourself!"

I laughed. Those two looked so much alike, I don't think I'll ever stop messing them up.

"Either way, I got your message last night about the prophesy. What did the Oracle say to you?" I was really hoping that nothing bad would come of this. For some reason a smile, quick and vague, flicked across Riku's face.

"You know what? I've forgotten. But I do have it written down somewhere in my cabin. How 'bout you meet me at the beach a little before dinner tonight? Then I'll have it for you for sure." His voice sounded so sure, but I knew he was just trying to get a date out of it. Strangely, I was happy about that.

"What is with guys and beaches?" I said sarcastically. "Sure. It's a date!" He smiled at my quick finding of his true intentions. His smile was striking and sure—but not overconfident. A perfe- _And here I am again, going insane._

Percy POV:

_There he goes again! _I screamed to myself in my head. _I mean, I know Annabeth is great-looking and smart but why pick her over all the other girls in camp? _

I don't usually beat myself up over things like this. But right now, I just want to give that Riku a piece of my mind.

"I'm afraid that I have an announcement to make." Chiron said over the intercom. "I would like allparticipants in the new prophesy to see me at the Big House immediately. Sorry to interrupt your breakfast." And with that the intercom shut off and everyone was talking as if nothing had ever happened. Everyone except Annabeth and me.

I scarfed down the rest of my breakfast quickly and Annabeth eyed me up as if saying '_Was that _really _necessary?' _All I could do was smile her a huge yes. And with that we were off to the Big House. The only person we needed to be here was Grover so that we could have back the terrible trio.

"You think it's another challenge?" Inquired Annabeth.

"You want me to win another so soon? Just relax. The challenges will come like normal. Like the first one. We would have done that anyways." I explained. Annabeth wasn't so soothed.

"That makes it even _worse! _We might have already had the second challenge and we wouldn't know! Someone could get a 'great demise' on what we don't even know we're doing!" Freaked Annabeth.

I got in front of Annabeth, took both of her hands in mine and despite the noticeable blush creeping up my cheeks looked her in the eyes. "It's _going _to be okay Wise Girl."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say, Seaweed Brain."

I put my arm over her shoulders like best friends do for a picture and she did the same to me. We walked like that all the way to the Big House and I noticed the faintest blush painted on her face. Along with a smile.

When we came around to Chiron on the porch, he didn't usher us inside like normal. Instead he asked a simple question.

"Did my message not get to everybody? I thought everyone would be in the cafeteria at this hour..." Chiron said puzzled.

"What do you mean? Everyone heard your message and went on eating like normal-" Annabeth was interrupted by a mumble from Chiron.

"You asked to see the participants in the prophesy and we came. So what's wrong?" Percy interjected.

"No, Percy, Annabeth, you're not understanding. When I asked to see the participants in the prophesy I wanted _all _of them." Chiron explained.

I was just freaked out. _Who?_ Suddenly Annabeth understood.

"Percy, me..." She paused. Not in thought, but in understanding. "And Riku."

_**DUN, DUN, DUUUUUUUN! **_

**Well, that was short. You know what? I'm going to add the next chapter in too! Just for you! **

Percy POV:

_Is this even happening? _That was my main thought as Annabeth and I were walking back to the Mess Hall to retrieve the '_third of the prophesy.' _If you can spit out words in your mind that would be exactly what I would have done. I could already tell that breakfast was over due to the campers scurrying about to their cabins and I wished to do the same. But I knew that if I left Annabeth to find Riku I would next find them on the beach, hugging or something.

_Wow... I need some time on my own. And a life. That would help._

"Hey Annabeth, I'm gonna go to the beach. Riku's probably in his cabin." I stated the facts and then turned on my heel and headed down to the beach.

When I got to the beach, I didn't even bother looking out into the waves like I normally do; I instead just collapsed on the sand and closed my eyes. If I was, however, looking out into the waves I would see a man wearing a Hawaiian shirt rising out of the water. And of course he was not getting wet. But considering the fact that I wasn't looking out into the waves I got another way of realizing he was there.

"Percy!" A strong voice bellowed. I jumped a good foot into the air, regardless the fact that my feet weren't even touching the ground.

"Hey, uh...Dad. Haven't seen you in a while." I said. Though I didn't mean it as an insult he looked down.

"I know, Son. But how often do you think that other kids get to see their parents while at camp? Gods can't just stroll in you know." He said, face turning to a smile.

"Then how did you get in?" I questioned. I thought that the gods were always welcome, especially with Dionysus here.

"I simply _swam_ in." He beamed brightly. "Either way, I just had to come see you with the prophesy and what not. I already told Chiron and Dionysus so I thought you had the right to know." He hesitated so I nodded my head signaling for him to go on. "Things are about to get serious, Percy. Dionysus being the stickler he is isn't willing for you to ruin his camp so you're leaving."

I looked at him as if he was crazy. To me, at this moment not registering that he could kill me in .07 seconds, he was. "By the way, I'm really proud of you, Son. You've done great with the first two challenges. But I have to be going now. I'll see you again later. And this time I won't wait so long!"

I was shocked senseless too far to even respond as my father sank back down into the depths. I lay down again, pretending that this never happened. Too many thoughts would run through my head if I didn't. _When was the second quest? Why was I never told about it?_ I glanced back out to sea as if that would solve all my problems. I was so wrapped up in thought that I didn't realize that there was a beautiful girl that just joined me.

"Hey Seaweed Brain, I have a confession to make." She said while looking down. "I hate to break it to you this way but no matter how hard you stare at the water, you're not going to find your brain. It's lost for good." She laughed a bit nervously. "Are you alright Seaweed Brain?"

I looked at her. "When was the second challenge?" I questioned. When in doubt, ask the Wise Girl.

"Oh! Well I, um, was meaning to, uh, tell you about that. And...Uh...well... Riku, he heard the last part of the prophesy and it tests physical, mental and emotional strength." She was sputtering out words.

"And?" I questioned.

"That was part of the emotional."

My cheeks were burning hot. Now I _knew _Aphrodite was in this. Luckily, _someone_ prevented an awkward silence. "Hey Annabeth, I just saw Chiron and he wants you guys to get two other people each for the quest. So there'll end up being 6 people in two groups—one for your side and one for Percy's." Riku said. Then as an afterthought, "Oh hi Percy."

"Yeah, hey." I uttered. "Wait, what about you?"

"He decided that it was best if I didn't go. Too much competition or something. We should probably hurry. Get who you want to come."

When he left I blurted out "I call Grover!"

Annabeth looked at me skeptically. "Jellyfish." She accused.

"Well who are _you _taking?"

"Probably Malcolm and Nate. They're the smartest in our cabin. Who're you taking?"

"Grover definitely and I guess Juniper. You know how they get without each other." I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I'll help you find them." She offered.

It took a few minutes but we found Grover and Juniper _smoochy-faced_ in the forest. "Break it up you two!" I yelled. They broke apart instantly.

"Would you like something Percy?" Grover said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, you're going on a quest with us, G-man. And we need to hurry."

"What? You're going _again _Grover?" Juniper butted in.

"Don't worry, Juniper, you're coming too." Annabeth said.

"C'mon Grover, let's go get packed!" Juniper said excitedly. Grover and Juniper disappeared through the thick underbrush.

"Well that wasn't disturbing at all." I stated. "Meet you at the bottom of the hill?"

"Kay, I'll tell Malcolm and Nate not to kill you!" She said while running off.

Annabeth POV:

Ten minutes later we were all ready and working our way up Half-blood Hill. We were only about 3/4 of the way up when Riku came up to me and pulled me aside from Percy, Chiron and the others as we fell behind. "Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?" he inquired.

"Sure." Was all I said. I really had no clue what was coming. Riku and I still don't know much about each other yet.

"So I guess since we're leaving camp we won't get our date will we?" He asked meekly.

I hated to think of it like that but I just nodded in partial understanding.

"Well I'm sorry about that." He said. Then something completely unexpected and odd happened. He kissed me. Just a quick kiss on the LIPS but it felt like it lasted for so much longer because of the shock.

Then he turned around and headed toward the others and I followed suit still in a phase of shock. I looked up finally to see where I was going. What I saw then was almost equally shocking. I looked straight into Percy's eyes. They looked full of hurt and confusion as he looked me in the eye. But he turned around and climbed into the van.

I turned back to Chiron and Riku waving sadly then clambered into the van behind him.

***sniff* *tear* *sniff* Wow. Things got really emotional this chapter. **

**Anyhoo, can anyone hazard a guess why in the last chapter Riku's screen name was 'Lucky-Boy42'? It should be easy if you remember some first thoughts on him. Whoever guesses first...gets to read the next chappie early and decide what goes in the next, next chapter! So guess away! BTW, sorry for not updating for so long. Being separated thousands of miles away from your computer doesn't really help the fact that you have a FanFiction... **

**But I **_**will**_ **make it up to you guys! **

_**R, R&R: **__**Rock, Roll and Review!**_

_**P.S.**_** Puff the Magic Dragon hasn't eaten in five days and would gladly eat non-reviewers! (Or I could just feed him this cookie, but that's no fun!)**

_**Important! There is a link to a picture of Riku on my profile! All the way at the bottom!**_


	8. Just to check! who's naughty or nice

**Hello Humans! I know this is late notice but I was getting a lot of requests to **_**not **_**stop the story PMed to me. I already have a bunch of hits but not many reviews. Nobody is really reviewing. So if there is anyone out there who even still remotely wants me to add more to this story, please just leave a review saying so on the story. I kinda quit with it since I assumed nobody was reading it. So just if you can (no matter what language you speak) tell me if there actually **_**is **_**anyone who wants me to keep going. This whole thing could have been a misunderstanding! Sorry I'm a ditz!**

**In the words of Douglas Adams: "42."**

**-Human Person**

**PS. Sorry this was rated M for a while there! That was a total accident. It will and will always be rated T! I fixed it though!**


	9. The Best Thing for Gods Since SpongeBob!

**Hey everyone. I cannot in words express my guilt for giving up the story :( But I finally finished editing all of the previous chapters thus, back by popular demand: Chapter 9 of Back on Back. Epic music**

**P.S. Don't blame me for anything that happens. I kinda forgot exactly where I was going with this XD**

_...Then something completely unexpected and odd happened. He kissed me. Just a quick kiss on the lips but it felt like it lasted for so much longer. _

_Then he turned around and headed toward the others and I followed suit still in a phase of shock. I looked up finally to see where I was going. What I saw then was almost equally shocking. I looked straight into Percy's eyes. They looked full of hurt and confusion as he looked me in the eye. But he turned around and climbed into the van. _

_I turned back to Chiron and Riku waving sadly then clambered into the van behind him._

Annabeth POV:

Malcolm was sitting in the front seat, Juniper and Grover got the two seats in the middle of the van and Nate, Percy and I were scrunched the back 3 seats. It makes for a _horrid_ atmosphere in an awkward situation. Percy looked out of his window, watching the melancholy rain as it started to pour. That was the first time I _really _looked at him. Just then I wanted to die.

Grover and Juniper started yapping on at each other and Nate was doing a crossword puzzle. Even in such a claustrophobic space, it felt like it was only me and Percy. And I was a villain. No matter how much I wanted to talk, I stayed silent as I sat there.

"What is a 10-letter word for seatbelt?" Nate piped up, facing me.

"Guillotine." I answered, and promptly pulled my hat over my eyes.

Percy POV:

I simply sat there, trying to take my mind off of what I had just seen. Starting to play with the rain, I began thinking. _Why is this happening? And why am I...feeling this way about it? _Only 2 people could honestly say they knew why: Aphrodite and me. Another thing I knew is that even though I have the nicknames Seaweed Brain, Kelp-for-brains and Jellyfish, I'm not stupid enough to believe that I'm not jealous. Annabeth had to explain why 'Jellyfish' is an insult: jellyfish have no brains. It's always been up to her to know everything _for _me.

I stopped messing around with the rain. _Maybe that's why she likes Riku. He's smart. They could share the same witty jokes, not just the Seaweed Brain/Wise Girl disses. And even though they don't have all the inside jokes yet, it seems to me that their relationship is still close._ I reached into my bag and grabbed my iPod showing no care that Annabeth had been watching me.

"What's a 10-letter word for seatbelt?" Nate interrupted.

"Guillotine." Annabeth said stubbornly. I chuckled as I put in my ear buds. Although that girl may never like me, she will never cease to amuse me.

_**Back at Camp HalfBlood:**_

"Dionysus," Chiron started, "what exactly _is _the point of this quest? To me, it seems like you've just gotten away with shipping off 6 campers."

Dionysus smiled. "That is _exactly _what I've just done, my good centaur. You should know by now that this is the most entertaining thing for the gods since SpongeBob came out. And I don't want the '_strong demise' _to take place at _my _camp. Anyway, it's like watching a game show for gods!"

"This is insane! Those kids could actually _hurt _themselves! I knew thi-"

"The only way that's going to happen is if Nick and Malvin kill Pierre in his sleep. Otherwise, everyone is too good of friends. That's why we had to keep Roku _here_. Him and Porky..." Dionysus made a clashing motion with his fists, "Don't get along at ALL. Plus, we had some...volunteers."

"Volunteers? ...I thought the kids got to pick their _own _campers to help them."

Dionysus chuckled. "These volunteers aren't campers!" He paused to regain himself, "They're gods!"

Chiron shook his head. Wherever this was going. It definitely would NOT end well.

**This was an uber-short chapter...sorry 'bout that! I just forgot where I was going with this and I'm just trying to set it up for my new idea. I think you guys will love it though! Thanks for motivating me through this gigantic writer's block. Hopefully this didn't suck though, right? ****Gosh dang review if so! ****Or if not, I really don't care as long as you review. And please have advice on where this thing should go because...I've lost it. I've dug myself into a hole that I can't get out of. Thanks all! XD**


	10. In which Gods meddle with competition

**Hopefully a longer chapter here! And I forgot to dedicate the last chapter to a country how I always do. This one is doubly for New Zealand because I just visited you a while back and because you guys actually bother to go onto my profile...and Maori people are the coolest (fine, **_**triply)**_**. Thus, chapter 10, where I make a ladder and climb out of the hole I dug myself into :D Basically setup for the next chapter which is ****EPIC AS RAVING CATS ON CAFFINE! **

Chiron was pacing down the main hallway of the Big House. As much as a half-horse creature can, that is. Suddenly, an Iris message started fuzzing in.

"Nate, scoot over!"

"Percy, you little-"

"Stop! Percy and Annabeth are the leaders of this quest so they should talk!" Demanded a voice Chiron recognized as Grover. Just then, Percy and Annabeth popped in the front of the Iris message.

"Hey Chiron," Started Annabeth "we have a question for you. If you can tell us, that is." She gestured for Percy to speak but he pretended not to notice. After giving a large sigh, she continued, "What exactly _are _we supposed to be doing? This quest makes no sense to...really any of us."

Chiron's mind whizzed with everything he could make up: To scout out an enemy, hunt and kill random NY monsters, to find and report how the last baseball game went...he could use those later. For now, they needed the truth.

"What you're doing on this quest should be quite simple! Follow the signs. There will be signs everywhere for you to find and follow if you pay attention." Chiron mentally slapped himself; _well, maybe not quite the most amazing truth I could tell... _Now it was up to the gods to play with their minds and quest.

Percy finally spoke up, "Is that supposed to mean something? We don't see any signs! Unless you count that stop sign over there, but no one in New York pays attention to those. Anything could be a si-"

"Yes, just follow the signs Percy. In fact, there's one behind you right now!" Chiron said, pointing. Everyone turned and he waved his hand through the Iris Message. He hated lying to the campers about dangerous quests. But it was Percy and Annabeth—good campers—there was nothing to lose.

He made his way over to the volleyball courts in hope that dear Iris wouldn't be able to find him again.

"Athena," Aphrodite called, walking into the television room. "I wanted to apologize for-" She looked around, seeing only Hephaestus working on the Hephaestus TV.

"Everyone's gone. The TV is broken—well, not anymore it isn't!" He stated with a beaming smile of a job well done.

"Do you know where Athena is? I wanted to give her an apology makeover."

"Check channel 4," he said, throwing her the remote.

"It's just the new game show network. Percy, Annabeth and the gang." She said, becoming _very _confused. The fact that she had a reputation of being an idiot Goddess infuriated her; it took brains to plan out some love lives! However, confusion was one of her high points.

"I assume you were here when we made the game rules, correct?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't see how that has anything to do with it. I would be able to see if Athena was in a fake form." Aphrodite said, jerking her thumb toward the TV.

"Maybe she's not in a _fake_ form." And with that, he walked away. He wanted to watch her figure this out on her own. (Aphrodite didn't know about channel 54... "Airhead Aphrodite." It gets five times more views than "Hades the Hothead").

Hephaestus shook his head. _What I sacrifice for the gods' entertainment..._ _This is SO going on TiVo!_

Annabeth POV:

_Anything could be a sign... _I said to myself. But anything could not be a sign too! I noticed a beggar on the side of the road who looked radiating. He was coming up to us slowly.

"Care to spare some change? I'd love hospitality. I can read your palm." He offered.

"No, no. We're not interested." I said, my father had taught me how to deal with beggars.

"Let me see your hand. You are looking for something. I can help to find." _Was this beggar a sign? _I thought to myself

"And how would you go about doing that?" I asked, slightly peeved, slightly intrigued.

"Look for differences. This town is awfully red. Good luck Annabeth." I took it the beggar walked away because after my head stopped spinning, he was gone.

_I never told him my name._

Yet he knew I was Annabeth. _He was either an AMAZING fortune teller or..._ I scanned my head for anyone that could be and came up empty. I then walked up to Percy, not because I _wanted _to talk to him yet, because I _needed _to.

"Perce, I suspect foul play here."

"Back at you."

"You saw the beggar too?" I exclaimed. There was no way! This had to be a trick... But he looked at me as if I was crazy. Which I probably am.

"No...I think not... But there are beggars everywhere in this town. Even our apartment has its own hobo." I laughed; glad to see that he was joking around again. For some silly reason, I thought he had cared that Riku kissed me. _Why should he? _I asked myself. Riku! He'll know what we're supposed to do!

"Percy, lend me a drachma!"

"Why?" he asked, fishing around in his pockets. **(AN: Lol, Percy 'fishing' around.)**

"I need to Iris Riku!"

He stopped looking. "Sorry, I'm all out."

_Hephaestus DEFINITELY had inside information... _Aphrodite thought to herself. _Whatever the matter, I need to get to the bottom of this! _ With that, Aphrodite teleported to a disgustingly red town. "At least they have good taste," she muttered to herself, "the color of love."

It wasn't long before she spotted a person. A very...godly radiant person. "Apollo?"

"Oh hey Aph, I didn't know you were competing too! Whose side are you on?" If anyone were to further confuse the already overly-confused goddess, it would be Apollo.

"Sides? I don't choose _sides. _I err on the side of love!" she scoffed, "And don't call me 'Aph'!"

"Hmm...So it's really true. Only people on the side of Annabeth have come so far. I'd be for Percy...but Athena makes a compelling case."

"That's right! Do you know where Athena is? You're in the only fake form I see!"

Apollo rolled his eyes, "They don't call her the Goddess of Wisdom for nothing." Still seeing her signature confused look, he continued, "A fake form like mine would be too obvious. Even if it is totally out of character. I mean look at me! I'm supposed to be hotter than the sun! At least I still got to talk in haik-"

"Get to the point, please, Apollo. It's rude to keep a lady waiting, you know." She said, as if giving him love advice.

_Is she really this clueless? _"You mean you don't see any godly, powerful-seeming, little eldest sons?"

"Thanks Apollo! I know exactly what you're saying now! By the way, the television is fixed."

"Awesome! Which one, mortal or Hephaestus?"

"Hephaestus, of course! You could probably even spy on the people of Percy's side on channel 4! Why would we need a mortal TV?"

"Two words: SpongeBob Squarepants. _Nothing _is better. Bye, Aph!"

"Don't call me—darnit!" _Where in the name of Tartarus did Percy and Annabeth go?_

After thoroughly scouting the area, Aphrodite found Percy& co. near an unusually large tree. Apollo had led her straight to Athena.

"Athena! ...Athena?" she whispered to Malcom, "I know you're in there!"

Malcom/Athena looked over, horrified. "Aph? Is that you?"

"Don't call me Aph! And are you_ trying _to ruin my beautiful, _beautiful _couple?" At seeing Athena's slightly guilty look, she assumed so. "The only reason you're playing in this little game is to keep Annabeth and Percy apart, isn't it? And after all the trouble I went to, conjuring up the little 'distraction' that you wanted. And a son of Caerus none the less—such a minor deity! Do you really care _that_ much just to keep Percy and Annabeth apart?" Aphrodite looked hurt.

"I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't enforced all this...Percabeth nonsense." Malcom/Athena stated, keeping a cool head as normal when dealing with the certain Goddess of Love.

"Enforced?" Aphrodite scoffed, "Honey, I _created _Percabeth. You're the only reason for this Rikabeth gibberish! You actually made them...like each other."

Athena smirked at yet another victory. _Anything to keep her away from that sea scum. _Yet, the mother in her was happy that Annabeth could be happy with it too.

"I guess now...we're truly rivals, hunh?" Aphrodite said, sick to her stomach. It was the things like this that made her wonder if Athena actually had a heart to start with. At least now Aphrodite knew what she needed to do.

_Malcom? Is that all she's got? _Aphrodite giggled while walking away. _I might actually beat her at her own game!_ If Athena truly wanted to act as Goddess of Wisdom (and Love), Aphrodite could be Goddess of Love (and Wisdom). She pulled a piece of paper and a pencil out of thin air, lightly floating atop the dirt encrusted bench.

Not long after, she got out her messenger bell. "Hermes," she called, "please be a dear and deliver this to Dionysus at his little daycare. Tell him that I expect his answer by tomorrow." And with that, the letter vanished.

Dionysus knew something would soon go wrong the instant he saw the pink envelope with the red little heart sticker on addressed to him. "Aph's at it again, is she?" he mumbled to himself. He couldn't tell if what he read made him excited, elated, concerned or angry. Most likely the first two—free entertainment!

_Dear Dionysus,_

_Please accept my sincerest apologies when I ask to borrow a camper. With your obvious trouble of names, you may want to ask Chiron to help you find him._

_Oh, and Hephaestus told me to ask which side you're on in the Percy/Annabeth prophesy. _

_Back to the point, I expect Riku of the Hermes cabin to be waiting at the top of Halfblood Hill tomorrow morning._

_Yours truly from above,_

_Aphrodite, Goddess of Love_

_P.S. You may want to invest in a Hephaestus TV for the camp. Things are about to get a whole lot more interesting._

**Yep, that's my chapter. I went to my sister today and she said that my story sounds like crap (I described it) and only squees would read it (squees are people who read ANYTHING on fanfiction for lack of anything better to do...) So if a real fan is out there, encouragement please? **

_**THE NEXT CHAPTER IS EPIC AND HUGE AND ALL THINGS WONERFUL **_:) XD


	11. The Finale of Epic Cookie Proportions

_**Edit de la Edit- **_**I actually thought I put this up over a year ago. One of my friends just told me that I never finished my story. Oops! XD This chapter has just been rotting in my old computer for months.**

**Since this chapter wraps up most all questions in epicness, I would be disappointed if you didn't use an epic narration voice while reading. This chappie is a tad long and since it is so freaking awesome, it has to go to home: US and UK (I'm a Brit...[well not really, only grew up there for 5 years] who has been living in the US for 9 years now XD) I split up this chapter into mini sub-chapters. **

**Warning: I promised to have fun with the last chapter. So you have no clue what you're getting into.**

Aphrodite's ideas often lead to rather odd situations: Hera being stuck in a fish tank, _Ares _getting a sickeningly cute puppy who he named Suzie and somehow managing to spike the nectar with something even more powerful. This idea led to a rather...impromptu meeting between a son of Caerus and a goddess bent on success. Most importantly, she had the whole prophecy (which could possibly put at least 3 gods into immortal drachma-less-ness).

You've gotta love Aphrodite.

* * *

**The Plan of Awesome**

"Guys, we need to find somewhere to crash. I doubt we could keep up looking for alleged 'signs' with nowhere to sleep." Juniper piped up. She had been oddly quiet around her '4-leaf Grover' so far. They had been looking for the 'signs' Chiron told them about in the general area with the giant tree as a meeting spot.

"Somewhere to crash? Why hello there, Mr. Giant Tree. May we sleep in you?" Percy asked the tree dramatically, ear cupped to it as if listening, "Uh-huh. Okay. Thanks." He came back to us and pointed at the tree. "The tree said yes."

"We can't sleep in the tree like homeless people! What if a monster comes to pick us off one by one?" Juniper said—worried out of her mind, "As good as my little 4-leaf Grover is, he hasn't been able to smell monsters as well recently."

All of the Athena kids were strangely quiet. They asked each other questions quietly forming a little huddle.

"But what if we-"

"No. I'm positive..."

The hushed talking was almost maddening. Percy, Grover and Juniper were just staring. Mostly from Annabeth they had learned to _never _interrupt a child of Athena while thinking.

"That's all we have to do?"

"I think we..."

"_Riku?" _Annabeth cried, running past everyone. Percy just subtly scowled and turned his head opposite the approaching boy. "Why are you here?"

"I take it you missed me." Riku said, dramatically wincing and covering his ears at the sheer volume of the call. "What did I miss?"

"Actually we were just discussing where to sleep and we have an idea that I think you could help with." Annabeth stated. Her voice became low and quiet as a breath, "And I want to talk to you later."

Nate smirked, "We're crashing the hotel room to end all others: the party room. So here's how it works..." And thus, he went on to explain the plot.

"Dang, Annabeth!" Percy exclaimed at the end, "He really _is _your brother!"

Thus, with a proud smile from Nate and laughter from everywhere else, the plan began.

Nate checked the _Room Key Only _entrance door. "Open," he turned to Malcolm, "talk about living up to standards." **(AN: has anyone else noticed that they're almost **_**always **_**open?)**

"Yeah, yeah. Just remember that if anyone asks we're brothers staying with our parents in room 317."

"In that case, go right along," a menacing voice boomed sarcastically, "I won't stop you. Of course not."

"U-uh...hello, sir. Could you please tell me where the complimentary coffee bar is? My father sent us down here to get a cup and we can't find it." Nate said. 'Malcolm' smirked proudly. _Sharp as a tack._

"Coffee? At this time of night? I think I'd like to meet the man and get his reasoning behind that."

"Of course, sir," Malcolm said, "Room 317. Now if you'll direct us to the coffee, we'll be happy to take you to meet the brilliant man and his motives."

The man showed them to the coffee bar and sat in a chair, watching them carefully.

"But what if there's no one even _in _Room 317?" Nate questioned, panicking silently like it was nothing, getting out a cup and lid, "He might turn us over!"

"We only chose that room because the light was on and we saw someone inside from out of the building. Don't worry, I have twenty bucks. They'll claim us."

"What's the ruckus about? Can't remember what your alleged _father's_ name is?"

"No, I think he wants decaf because he ALWAYS gets decaf, but my brother says that he's switching to caffeine." Nate said, looking up at him sadly, "What should we do?"

The man was at a loss for words. "Just...get him decaf I guess. Caffeine is bad for you anyway."

Nate and Malcolm shared a knowing glance. "Deal."

Shortly after taking the elevator up to floor 3, the man followed them to room 317 and knocked on the door. When there was no answer, he smirked and knocked again. This time a man came to the door.

"Hey dad," Nate said, walking up to and hugging the man, "I brought you the coffee you asked for."

"Caffeine or decaf?" He was going along with it!

"Decaf, dad. You _know _caffeine is bad for you."

"Always with the health tips from you. You're just like your mother! You never give me a break!" He looked at the large man, "And who is this?"

"I take it they're your children, then? They were making quite a ruckus down in the lobby."

"Well, one of them is mine." He said, reaching down and hugging Nate. "His mother is responsible for that child, gods bless. One is enough for me." He laughed, reaching down and hugging Malcolm.

"In that case, have a nice night, sir. Sorry to bother you." The man said and walked away, defeated.

When he was gone, the questions were flying.

"Why did you do that? How can we repay you?" Nate inquired.

"Eh, the coffee will do. I can tell you have something to do, go on!" He chuckled.

Nate had started to leave when he saw Malcolm wasn't moving. "C'mon Malcolm. They're probably waiting on us by now."

"Just go. I have to catch up with my...dear..._sweet...cousin." _Malcolm nearly spat.

As Nate turned, he could just make out a, "What the Hades are you doing here Apol-" and the door shut.

Nate left skeptically and took the elevator up to floor 6; the last no-key entry floor. Easy to see from outside, the stairs to floor 7 were on the side of the building near the janitor's closet. Bounding up the stairs he came to the final barrier between him and sleep. Now all he had to do was stand there and wait for the click of the door.

Out by the side of the building, Grover was warming up on his panpipes by playing a Song of Dance. If he didn't get this Song of the Wind _exactly _right, Percy and Riku may fall to their death. No pressure. Suddenly, the giant tree back a short distance away started swaying to the beat. Juniper noticed and scrambled over.

"Excuse me, but are you a wood nymph?"

"I do prefer the term Dryad but yes, I am. I was wondering about your features and smell. Don't tell me you're one too?"

"Yes! Yes I am! Don't you ever move from your roots?"

The large nymph huffed, "The others say I'm fat and ugly. I haven't moved since. The song was just so...filled with joy!"

"Would you mind, just for a moment, letting us climb on your branches to get on top of that building?"

"Not a bit sweetie, thank you for being friendly." She said with a smile.

Meanwhile, the group had been filling in. "Guys," Juniper started, "we don't have to use the wind anymore. This beautiful tree is a Dryad like me!" The tree blushed green with chlorophyll just as Juniper always did. "She has offered to give us a lift to the roof."

"That's great! ...Should someone tell Annabeth?" Riku asked.

They all looked up. Since she had dawned her Yankees cap, no one could see her.

"Nah," said Grover, "she'll notice all in good time."

Everyone laughed. Everything was great and the plan, though changed, had worked. The group got onto the roof and opened the roof hatch with ease to get in. After opening a door for Nate and... Nate...only?

Nate sensed everyone's look and explained, "Believe it or not, we found his relatives here. He said they're probably going to catch up for a while. I have to say, I'm glad he was the—"

The roof hatch was pulled roughly open. "Did no one think to tell the invisible girl that you were hitching a ride on a tree? I had to go and distract everyone on a balcony so that they didn't see a group of kids being lifted by a giant tree!"

"Ooh, could you imagine explaining that to someone?" Grover chuckled and went on imitating a woman's voice, "No really! It waved goodbye to the children, I swear!"

* * *

**Luck? That's My Daddy! (You Not So Much...)**

After some yelling, explaining and worry for each others' sanity, everyone finally settled down to adore the room they had just crashed.

"Dude! This is so _huge. _Is that a swimming pool? An—"

Percy cocked an eyebrow, "Swimming pool?"

"What," Annabeth teased, "Jellyfish can't stay away from water?"

"You do know how I love the stuff." he admitted with a smile. He just then remembered that he was angry at her._ I have to remember she hurt me_. The way she smiled affectionately. The way she kissed _Riku—_the prat to end all others—leaving him alone on the hill for a newer, better friend. _Or maybe even more how this is going, _he spat to himself in his head.

He turned away from her wistfully and Juniper noticed. "Annabeth," she cried, "come check out the room with me!"

Annabeth reluctantly left with Juniper toward the other side of the giant space. She silently followed Juniper up to a little overhang filled with a flat screen television and posh furniture. "Let me braid your hair," Juniper suggested.

"I'm not really a hair kind of person..."

"Nonsense! I insist. It'll keep the hair from whipping your face like a ponytail does."

Annabeth took out the ponytail and let her hair fall. She handed it to Juniper who started working her magic. "So..." Juniper said, trying to lead Annabeth into a 'girl talk'.

"Yeah. So how've you been? I guess we haven't really talked in a while."

"Stop playing dumb and tell me what is with you and those two!" If it didn't apply quite so well, Annabeth may have laughed at a child of Athena 'playing dumb.'

"Juniper...believe me when I say that I would tell you if I knew. I just..." Annabeth ran out of words for once, "It's hard to know for sure, right? Like, Percy and I have been friends forever and so obviously I like him more than the average demigod. But Riku came to me, returned my intelligence and gives me thought-filled conversations that are also fun. Like the dream friend of any Athena child! I can't say I didn't like it when he kissed me but Percy did the same before and I liked that too! And don't even get me _started _on how even though I 'got over' Luke he's still special to me. Does that make me a horrible person?"

Juniper took one long blink and knitted her eyebrows. "Well, I don't think you're a horrible person. But I thought Luke was out of the question. I know it's hard to let go of a first love, sweet. You're not still in love with him; you're in love with the feeling of being in love. Like when I first fell in love with a big, amazing tree named Birch it was hard to—well, that's not relevant anymore. What _is _relevantis that you don't know what love is."

"Exactly! We're all pretty good friends how I see it."

"Not for long." Juniper mumbled.

"Hunh?"

"I said your braid is done! Forget swimming; just sleep this off, m'kay? In fact I'm about to suggest the same with my little—"

"Yes, we know. Your little '4-leaf Grover.'" She drolled sleepily. Sarcastically she added, "How witty."

Before settling down, she asked Nate if he wanted to come up and sleep at the top with her.

"Nah, I'll wait for Malcolm. I brought a good book anyway." He winked.

_That's my brother, _was her last thought before drifting to sleep.

A muffled scream awoke everyone. "Bill, call security!" A woman's voice forced.

Not long after, Grover and Juniper were forced out of the room with Nate already captured. Percy came out of his room a split second before Riku and Annabeth put up a hand warningly to both of them.

"Now may I ask what you were doing in a room unpaid for?" One of the guards asked curtly.

"We are from the Miyamoto party two days ago. We found this little boy here passed out by the foosball table. It was a rather..._wild _party and we wanted to make sure nothing happened to him." Grover played out, trying to sound a bit over-mature.

"I'm afraid our manager needs to have a few words with you, sir." He turned to the other couple, quite obviously newlyweds, "And you two please enjoy your room."

"But of course. Lead the way." Grover concluded sourly.

As soon as they were heading out of the room Juniper turned back and pointed toward a small window unseen previously obviously suggesting an escape route. Before they had time to discuss if it was the best way or not, Percy had opened the window and vaulted over it to the railing outside. The newlyweds were closing the distance towards the stairs where they would have a clear view of the sprinting children.

"Trust me?" Riku asked.

"Of course!"

"You shouldn't." He said with a grin. He then took her hand and sprinted toward the window, pushing Annabeth out in front of him safely.

Once the rapid breathing had stopped and the adrenaline had subsided there was a stark pause.

"So what do we do now?" Riku asked, just as clueless as Percy.

Annabeth put her hands together off to one side. "We shop."

Percy and Riku looked at each other and burst out laughing at her sudden show of girlyness.

"Well Percy and I will patrol the area." Riku shot a look at Percy, "We have some things to discuss. And I've never been a great shopper anyways."

Five minutes later, they had somehow gotten off the top of the 8 story building safely, Annabeth was in a deli/market and Riku and Percy were taking a little..._walk._

"Love alliance." Riku stated matter-of-factly.

"What on earth is that?"

"We need to make an alliance for Annabeth. Just because I don't like you doesn't mean I'm a terrible person."

"Riku, it's not like that. It's not like we're both madly in love with her. We're all just friends."

Riku scoffed. "After _that _kiss you still think she thinks of me as just a friend? I'm being nice by letting you catch up. We can be friends or enemies in this, you know."

"Friends in _what, _though? There is no 'this.' I'm pretty sure she thinks about us as good friends."

"Oh, so you don't mind if I claim her then?" Riku said raising an eyebrow challengingly.

"Claim whoever you want," Under his breath something along the lines of 'you arrogant prat', "Just don't involve it with my or my friendships."

"Thanks then, I guess I had the wrong impression." Riku stated, continuing eastward.

"You're welcome." Percy waited a moment in thought. "Oh and Riku? I don't plan on losing."

* * *

_**Lost and Found**_

Annabeth walked out of the deli/market with two small bags full of groceries. "Okay, I got the necessities from the stuff we left in that room. Could you help with this bag?"

One of the bags was beginning to topple over. "Guys?"

As the bag fell, she took a look of what was around her. It was then that she realized she had no clue where she really was other than a market by a hotel, there was no one around her and no one planned on helping her with the bag she just dropped. She picked up a slightly bruised apple and headed to where she thought they would be.

Westward.

"Hey Riku, we should go see if Annabeth is done yet." Percy stated, already turning.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Well," Riku truly looked troubled, "I can't explain it but in the same way you can control water, sometimes I just get these...feelings. To go somewhere, do something, say something so that it works out to my favor. Like a supreme luck complex. Once I saved a boy from being hit who just happened to be my teacher's son whose class I was struggling in. I ended up getting an A."

"And saving a boy's life! Well, I'm not sure I completely understand but by all means if it has that much power..." he muttered, "Run and I'll follow you Godspeed."

And with that, Riku took off through a few intersections, between buildings and after about 14 minutes of sprinting (which he would brag about in the future) finally settled on a parked car.

A parked car with the label '_Delphi Strawberry Farms.'_

Riku and Percy shared a worried glance. Something was going wrong with the camp. Looking past the car, Percy moved forward and recognized Half-blood hill about 500 feet to his right. He walked forward through the invisible border.

"We're...back?"

Riku smirked, confounded, "Well that was a short quest."

A couple walking by, linked hand-in-hand recognized them and ran up to meet them. Percy snickered at the sight of Brooke and Connor together. He had nearly forgotten the out of character love between the Aphrodite girl and Stoll boy. Brooke ran up and hugged him.

"I'm so glad nothing happened to you! Given the circumstances we all thought you might be dead!"

"For the _third _time I might add." Connor chided.

"Given the circumstances? What's going on?" Percy worried.

Brooke and Connor shared a glance, "Don't worry, Peleus upped security here."

"But there's a powerful monster on the loose."

"And we have reason to believe it is being controlled by a titan...Coeus."

Riku gasped loudly. Percy had heard the name but not recalled it.

"Isn't that... Wasn't he confined by Zeus to the Tartarean pit? "Riku started

"Yeah. That's what scares everyone so much. They might be able to get out." Connor rushed, "He was the leader of the Kouretes when they aspired against Zeus so it makes sense! He might be trying to restore the ranks and finally defeat the Gods."

"I have no doubt he is." Riku stated solemnly.

"Well how do we know for sure? Could it just have been working on its own accord?" Percy asked, "What is it the titan of anyway?"

"Coeus is the titan of intellect. He also controls the constellations. About a week back, this report came out." Connor handed him a news flyer.

_NASA:_

_In a meeting of astronomers and astrophysicists from NASA Professor Tom McGlenden (Harvard Astrology professor) claimed, "The stars are 2 months off of rotation as of yesterday. Where Perseus and the Little Dipper constellations are supposed to be there is Canes Venetici."_

_Professor McGlended was forced to resign his post at Harvard. While astronomers quickly dismissed his theory, he was replaced by Henry Steinberg at the school. Further research has confirmed this theory. It is yet to be determined if he will be posted at Harvard once again. Rumor says Yale is vying for his attention. There have been no theories on the event of the stars. _

"Coeus runs the axis of heavens in the north. If he moves, the stars might go with him." A voice that could only be Chiron's stated. He was trotting up to them on the hill. "Where are the others?"

"Malcolm found relatives, Grover, Juniper and Nico are in the custody of a hotel and-" Riku and Percy looked at each other, "Annabeth!"

"What happened to Annabeth?" Chiron interjected.

Percy groaned, "We left her at a grocery store a few miles away. See, Riku got this feeling to come here."

Chiron looked wistfully toward the border, "Well I guess that can't be helped. At least we know that Malcolm is safe with relatives and Nico and Juniper are in good hands with Grover. We can think the best for Annabeth, she's strong. Meanwhile, you must stay here. _Safe. _We've already started calling back some people who left camp for college and most are on their way here already."

"But what about Annabeth and the others? They might be in trouble!" Percy exclaimed.

"If I concentrate all of my energy into following my whims I'm pretty sure we can find the others."

"There is a limit on how far even luck can take you." Chiron stated, "You'll stay here tonight. Tomorrow we'll iris message the others and send Argus to pick them up with some of the graduated campers. Coeus is after you, Percy. You're the only one that can save the Gods and he thinks this is his last chance."

_WAAUUUUUUUUUP_

"Time for dinner already, see? All you boys need is good food and a good night's sleep. Don't fret over this more than needed. We'll have both groups back by tomorrow."

And with that, the group walked—or, rather, trotted for some—to dinner. But to Percy, somehow the blue Coke didn't taste quite as sweet and he ate his food in a mindless silence.

"Gods, Percy. You had the drachmas so I can't even IM anyone." Annabeth muttered to herself, taking a bite of the apple. The sun was starting to set creating a beautiful scene in front of her. _Well, it would be beautiful if I knew where in Tartarus I am!_

All too quickly, the sun dropped as if playing a game of peek-a-boo with the ground. Though Annabeth hated to admit it, she despised being alone and lost almost to the point of a phobia. Between bites she began humming a nostalgic, yet unplaceable, tune. As she gathered her surroundings she noticed a faded, graffiti ridden sign that said simply 'Sands Point State Park and Reserve.'

Who thought a simple sign could fill her with such relief? Now she knew where she was. She was still somewhere in Long Island. Most likely miles and miles away from camp. But close to something that comforted her: architecture. Walking up through the park she happened upon what she was looking for: Sands Point Reserve. She sat, reading the plaque of information she already knew:

_Sands Point Preserve a nature preserve and a prime example of Long Island's Gold Coast estate period. Visit the Hempstead House and Castle Gould, the castle built on the estate in 1902, fashioned after Kilkenny Castle in Ireland.__ The gothic, medieval looking castle was the estate of the Guggenheims, a wealthy and powerful family. The mansion was built by Howard Gould of whom the Castle Gould is named after. I__n its heyday in the 1920s, the Hempstead House revealed a taste for extravagance. In the Entry Foyer was an organ made of oak. The pipes still visible on the walls above were merely for show - the music reverberated through openings in the floors. Medieval tapestries once hung on the walls, and oriental carpets covered the floor.__The sunken Palm Court once contained 150 species of rare orchids and other plants. An aviary housed exotic birds in ornate cages among the flowers. The walnut-paneled Library was copied from the palace of King James I which inspired much of the building._

Such information made Annabeth feel comforted as she contentedly sat on a bench with a cheese stick admiring the building, calculating the build of it and marveling at a chance to see it. The same nostalgic tune popped into her head as she started humming. Remembering that the park's closing time was at around 4:30, she climbed a tree, bag of groceries in hand, so the night guards wouldn't find her. This, to her, was truly home.

**(AN: Can I please get an 'Awwwwww' from the imaginary crowd there? listens Why thank you, imaginary crowd. I know her home life isn't very good, so can't I give her the one home she's always loved, even if it is just fiction? imaginary 'awwwww' again)**

* * *

**Saving Grace. Without Grace.**

Later that night, Grover, Juniper and Nate showed up after abusing the only taxi in New York accepting drachmas. The drivers who took Percy to his second year of camp had long since been fired. Either way, as Chiron stated, they were home safe and sound to look forward to a good night's rest. It was noted by everyone that he didn't mention the MIA status of Annabeth or Malcolm. Not that it wasn't the talk of the camp:

"Did you notice that of all the people that went, the two smartest don't come back?"

"Do you think they sacrificed themselves for the others?"

"Pity. She was my friend."

"And still _will _be once we get her _back! _" Percy once blew up, "Unless she sees she's better than that. She's _not _gone yet! She's...not..." He stormed back to his cabin, Grover in tow—wisely not saying anything.

Percy sat on his bed and picked up a small bouncy ball and proceeded to bounce it against the ceiling back at him. "Is it wrong for me to be worried out of my mind? Is it wrong for nothing here to be as good?" He shifted, looking to Grover, "Because it just seems that everything is different."

"Nah, it's pretty common to feel like this when you love a person far away."

Percy chuckled breathily, "You're worse than my mom. She's been having conspiracies about Annabeth and me for years now."

"And you can truthfully say she's completely wrong?"

Percy shrugged, "It's one of those '4 out of 5 dentists' things." Seeing Grover's look of confusion, he continued, "Like...you _know _you love Juniper right?"

"Of course!"

"How do you know?"

Grover thought for a minute before answering, "Well, all the qualities about her are things I adore. She's smart, funny, pretty and has a wonderful personality that just makes her right for me. And I love her for that."

"But couldn't you use the same descriptions for Annabeth? Smart, funny and pretty right? And you don't love her."

There was an awkward silence as Percy stared at the smile on Grover's face. It was the same smile his mother gave him whenever her name came up in conversation. All of a sudden, the smile made sense to him.

"And yes! So what if I call her smart, funny and pretty? It's true!" Calming down and realizing what he said, Percy gave him a 'this- is-off-the-record' face and mumbled, "That doesn't... mean I l-like her. Just like with you. She has Riku for that kind of love anyways."

"Just because I don't love her in the same way I love Juniper doesn't mean I don't love her." Grover stood up, pulling the covers over Percy in his bed before heading to the doorway and turning off the lights. "No one expects you to know for sure. Goodnight, Percy."

And along with the lights, Percy was out. Just because the quest only lasted two days doesn't mean it wasn't a quest. Yet, somehow, his brain managed to pump out the most peculiar dream:

"_Lost? What kind of a show is that? All I can imagine are a bunch of people walking around town lost, crying for their mothers." Percy feigned thought for a moment. "So it's a reality show!"_

_Annabeth glared at him as he raised his hands defensively. "What? I was just saying that it wouldn't make a very good show! Like, when I was lost in a store or whatnot, I used to sit on the floor clapping my hands and screaming 'MOMMY!' at the top of my lungs. Eventually someone would help me find her. Who would want to watch that?"_

_Annabeth started laughing. "I can imagine it now, Jellyfish!"_

_Percy wasn't about to take her badgering. "Are you saying that the daughter of Athena was too wise to scream for her daddy?"_

_She sobered up at his retort, but just a little, righting herself to sitting on the floor. "Actually, what I did made no sense, too." At my gesturing her to go on she continued, "I used to absolutely _hate _strangers. I never felt safe around them so I used to try to get lost in my own world by singing softly. Then I just instinctively found the biggest landmark around, almost like an unspoken meeting point. While I distracted myself with architecture and humming, my family learned how to find me."_

"_Where would you find architecture in a store?" Percy snorted._

"_You know what I meant, Seaweed Brain. Like, the first time I tried to make amends with my father when we went to Disneyland shortly after Matthew could toddle, I thought he had gone missing. I separated from my father to go looking. Next thing I knew, I was lost. There were so many people around me, a little scared 10 year old, so what was I supposed to do? I started singing Zip-a-dee-doo-dah and headed toward King Mickey's castle. I stood in fascination and my dad came and found me. The rest of the day was great!"_

"_Pssshh! And _you_ laughed at _my _singing today!"_

Percy awoke with a start realizing that that wasn't a dream; it was a memory. The clock said 1:37 but he just had to go, knowing that she'd be so scared. Under normal circumstances he may have laughed that the person who could 50% of the time kick his butt was scared like a lost puppy. As of now he just grabbed on a coat and prayed that he wouldn't get eaten by the camp harpies.

Because it was at this point in time that he admitted to himself his love for that girl. She was a smart-alec, teasing and difficult girl. And for that he loved her. And he knew exactly where she was. Because he knew that if he followed his heart, he would find hers.

_**(AN: I wanted to end it here SO BADLY!)**_

_**(AN P.S: But I didn't ;))**_

Riku watched the dark form of Percy sprinting across the lightless border. Guards were no use. Either Percy was crazy or he knew something Riku didn't. This race to find Annabeth was also a race to love her. Once Riku crossed that imaginary line, he knew it was an unspoken war cry.

So he focused his luck energy and soldiered on.

Randomly and instinctively he walked; Left, left, right, keep walking, down an alley, left. He scanned everything around him, noticing something that piqued his interest. A rather insanely large tree.

"Excuse me; were you the tree that helped us onto the roof yesterday?" Obviously wanting to keep the 'inanimate-tree-who-cannot-talk' façade up, she was still. "You're a dryad, yes?"

"Yes, I do recognize you now. Do you need back up there?"

"No. I was wondering if you had seen the other one that was with us. About my size, blond hair, gray eyes?"

"Yes! In fact, I just saw 'em about an hour ago heading that way." The tree said, gesturing with her lowermost branch westward.

"Thank you so much! You may have just saved my love life!" _Love life? _She thought, _I never would have guessed he was like that._ As she watched Riku run in that direction, she knew that whatever messed up love life he had would live.

Focusing on his instincts, he knew that the tree was right. He had a feeling that what he wanted to find wasn't far away and the distance was closing. What started as a speck of orange turning down a street soon became a shirt. The blue lines became pants. He could tell that the hair was blond with how it blended into the body. The shirt by now was definitely Camp Half-blood.

"Hey!" Riku yelled, "You coming back to camp with me or not?"

The person who used to be so far away turned around toward him, smiling. "You're my savior!"

"Well, how do you feel about finding your step sibling first so that everyone is safe?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way." The gray eyes seemed softer than ever with relief.

**(Another AN: Oh, I KNOW right now you're thinking: NOOO! PERCY FOR THE WIN! And to you I say: haha! Now back to the awesome story)**

So what if it was dark? So what if he was in the middle of Long Island? None of that mattered as Percy raced on toward his love...hopefully. It was his only guess on where she was, though she could be miles away by now. Sprinting past the deli/market she was last seen by, jogging past the signs and into a mess of trees.

All of a sudden, he came across a fence. And behind the fence was a tall, muscular and generally mean-looking man.

"Sorry, kiddo. No one allowed on park grounds at these hours."

"Sorry, I dropped my gameboy here earlier today and my parents would kill me if I didn't have it! I just came to look around here."

The guard thought and came to a mental conclusion. "I'm not permitted to allow you inside but I'll go check the lost and found in the building. You can pet the guard dog until I get back if you'd like." He said, briskly walking away.

_As if, _Percy thought, staring at the snarling dog. It seemed that the dog was snarling at something past him. As he hopped the fence, the dog didn't even care, eyes focused on something coming closer to the fence. The only thought breaking through his mind focused on running and looking was the stupidness of that dog.

Percy saw the large, gothic building in the distance and approached the clearing.

No one.

All he wanted to do at that moment was punch something, kick something. Anything to let another thing share his anger. Rearing up for a hard punch, he hit the park bench nearest him. He then noticed a cheese stick wrapper. The same type they had at camp. She had come here! But she was gone already. He went through with the punch and left a small dent in the soft, weathered wood—killing his hand in the process.

As he allowed a single sob for good measure as he sat on the bench, frustrated. He looked up toward the stars thoughtlessly.

"_Zip-a-dee-doo-dah," _Although the voice was just humming he knew he could add the words to such a nostalgic song_, "Zip-a-dee-day, my, oh my, what a wonderful day." _

So what if he was off-key? He knew that voice and thus, nothing mattered anymore. "Annabeth? Annabeth!"

A groggy voice answered, "Percy?"

Percy jumped up from the bench locating the sound. The tree above him? Soon enough he spotted an orange T-shirt and beautiful face he had come to memorize. "Annabeth!" He exclaimed as he scrambled up the tree. Open arms embraced Annabeth in the tree.

Nearly a minute later he started again, "You ready to go back to camp?"

"Percy...Thank—"

Suddenly a rumble shook the...sky? Looking up through the leaves, Percy noticed that the stars were moving. "Coeus..."

Annabeth gasped. "What about him? He's one of the most down-low but dangerous titans ever! Even Zeus himself is afraid of him."

"He escaped." Was the only thing he could get out before an unseen force knocked the tree over.

Percy reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his pen. Seeing it said _Office Max,_ he pulled out the other which turned into his trusted sword. "It's been a while, Riptide." He smiled and lunged forward swinging the sword in a circle. Expectedly, defeating an invisible target was difficult.

Percy was hit. Being thrown backwards, his breath left his chest in a heave. He flew toward a tree and hit it brutally.

"Percy!" Annabeth shrieked.

"Put the cap on." He choked. She was still hurrying toward him, "I'm _fine! _Put the cap on!" She pulled the cap out of her large back pocket, bent and smushed. Quickly as that, she was gone. Percy felt her touch his back.

"How do you see wind?" He whispered, slowly moving behind the tree to stand up.

"You can't. Wind isn't something attainable or even visible."

Percy dodged behind some trees, "But hair blows. Leaves rustle. What would we do to be able to see a body made of wind?"

"You don't happen to have any colored powder, do you?"

Percy smiled. "It's called Long _Island _for a reason." At her confused touch he continued, "Everywhere is coastal which means water and sometimes sand."

"We're at least a mile from any beach. More than likely more."

"Well then I'll have to make some makeshift water. Get close to me."

Percy emerged back out to the clearing and was immediately knocked back according to plan. He focused all of his energy and power on the water in the leaves of the trees. While the leaves wilted and shriveled, he found a large swirl of water gathering in front of him. He dispersed it into a mist around him. A small gap with no mist alerted him to Annabeth's presence. In his little bubble of mist, he would be able to see wind displacing the particles. Whenever the wind reached out at him, he dived with Annabeth in his arms.

"Dodging is great but how do we kill it?" He exclaimed, diving from another attempted hit.

"While the wind can't be hurt or die, there has to be someone controlling it." She gasped. "Do you think we're dealing with Coeus himself?"

"Right you are." A deep, husky voice answered.

"We need the help of the Gods." Annabeth looked at Percy. "I hate to say it, but we need to get a hold of Apollo."

"Why him?"

"His and Artemis's mother is Leto, daughter of Coeus. If they can pull a few strings and try to get her to convince Coeus otherwise... Leto is on the side of the Gods now. Coeus still loves her, though. She was his shining glory that Phoibe gave to him. I think she'll be able to convince him."

"Then go. I'll hold him off while you Iris Message the Apollo cabin. We need to get her here."

"Percy..." And he got a big invisible hug before she started walking.

"And Annabeth? If I don't come back... tell Nico good luck. He needs to save the world." Percy smiled.

Like a response, he got knocked back not noticing the disturbance of wind in his mist fortress.

"Hey, Coeus! You can't kill your grand-niece's lover can you?" Percy taunted, the pieces coming together for him.

"It's not my fault she favored the gods. Pyrra, right? Or was it Ephyra?" He chuckled, "Like a nymph would fall in love with you." He thrusted his arm forward to command the wind monster.

"Neither." At his look, Percy continued, "Calypso. The beautiful, Titan-bound Calypso. I was even thinking of siding with whatever she says in the Great Prophesy."

"L-liar!" He stuttered, "You're just like your father. Poseidon, correct? You would never defy him like he defied me. And when you see him in Erebos, _our _underworld, please thank him for helping convince Zeus to let us free."

Percy stared into space at the fact. "My...father? The lost play!"

"Exactly. The lost play _Prometheus Unbound. _It was 'lost' because Zeus didn't want the info to reach the other gods; they might protest. It was your father's handiwork, siding with his father and uncles in the end."

"You're my great uncle?" Percy was stunned. Someone...anyone could have told him why Kronos and his brothers were loose.

"See? Now you know how unimportant family is to me. I killed my own father! And now only Atlas has to repent by taking his job. But there's something different here. No one else is there to take yours."

Wind swept by Percy nearly knocking his head back. _Father, _he thought, _help me now. _Without the sand dollar the effort was fruitless. A whisper alerted him to Annabeth's presence.

"Apollo has convinced Zeus to let Leto come."

"It won't work. Coeus...has no heart. He killed his own father and now only Atlas has to work for it. He values no family." He spat those last words, and then softened, "I need my father."

"Then give me your sword." Annabeth said, taking the cap off, "It's all I can do. You'll be vulnerable."

Percy handed her the sword and she started walking away. "And Annabeth?" She turned, "live for me, will you?"

With an invisible, soft pressure on his lips (of which Annabeth would never admit in the future), he knew he had no hope and kissed back. Crunching leaves marked the girl jogging away. Percy lay back, attempting to relax in his last moments.

"Hey, Coeus? Did you ever regret killing your father?"

The evil titan faltered. "Never. Now where are you? It's your time."

"I know. I was just thinking that you might want to rethink the Gods." Percy said doubtfully.

"The brats killed my brother! We killed our father for a newer, better world! He didn't want to live in fear of his children doing the same. Eating them was a must. That way, he could never defy them."

"I never thought of it that way."

"No doubt. I had guessed you were just as pathetic as your father."

"But he was the one that helped release you! He had hoped you would be a better person now! I'm your great nephew who now understands both sides!"

"And for the Great Prophesy?"

"Water..." Annabeth muttered to herself. "That's it! The stream!" Annabeth ran as she recited the line in her head:

_The Hempstead house was protected from two of the major European/American wars. This is because of the natural barriers. Small but perilous mountains guarded to the North to the east, the melting snow flowing into the Barrers River to the south. When north, east and south were blocked, a drawbridge was put up to prevent soldiers from entering._

She would have fallen in the stream if the moon wasn't reflecting brightly. She threw Riptide in the water ahead of her and plunged her head into the depths.

"Concerning Poseidon, a great god, I begin to sing: the Shaker-of-the-Land and of the sea unharvested; god of the deep. A double meed of honour have the gods given thee, O Shaker-of-the-Earth. Hail, Prince, thou girdler of the Earth, thou dark-haired god, and with kindly heart, O blessed one, come save your son!"

Suddenly, the earth shook as a bull rose from the water. The bull morphed into Poseidon.

"Where is Perseus?"

Annabeth didn't even say a word before she started running toward the clearing. Not but a moment later they were a few feet away from Percy's hidden, still body. He started speaking.

"I never thought of it that way."

"No doubt. I had guessed you were just as pathetic as your father." Poseidon sneered and clenched his fist tighter around his triton.

"But he was the one that helped release you! He had hoped you would be a better person now! I'm your great nephew who now understands both sides!"

"And for the Great Prophesy?"

"I'll... The titans have a point—" Poseidon burst out of the trees in a rage.

"Dad!" Percy shouted.

Coeus started with a demeaning voice, "See, nephew? Even your own child goes against you. I guess it's a family tradition."

"But he's still my son!" And with that, Poseidon summoned the water out of the leaves to form a humid, misty fortress around them. Then, everything froze.

Breathing was painful, no movements were made and there was a dull sloshing sound through the air. A slow moving scream was heard as Coeus was cut into pieces.

"Just like your father and brother. I speak for all of the gods when I condemn you to Tartarus to be frozen in pieces." Coeus's pieces were swallowed into the ground toward the deepest pits of Tartarus. "Now _that's _the family tradition."

Percy looked at him in horror. "For immortals, at least, son." He chuckled, "Speaking of which, you were favoring the titans?"

"Can you blame them for having to live in fear of their children?"

Poseidon glared into thin air. "I really do love you, Perseus." He opened his arms and enveloped Percy in a huge hug.

He turned to Annabeth and chuckled, "How did a daughter of Athena, a sworn rival, know the Homeric Hymn to Poseidon?"

"I've been interested in Poseidon," Annabeth glanced at Percy, "for a few years now."

"Well then it's good you are. Otherwise—" He stopped, "I am forever indebted to you. I'm afraid all I do are horses, earthquakes, bulls, sea creatures and water; but I'm sure that I can arrange with my brothers."

"You saving Percy was enough for me." She bowed her head, "Thank you, Lord Poseidon. I shall try to stop my mother's badgering of you."

Percy put an arm around her shoulders, standing shakily, "Just like you to try and end a thousand year old feud."

They started following Poseidon back to the water, "Would you mind if I designed a city in your honor?"

"I couldn't think of anyone better for the job." He laughed as they reached the water. Stepping in he added, "And make it better than Athens, would you?"

"I'll try my best, Lord Poseidon!" She said, waving goodbye.

"Oh believe me. I know what's going on even if your mother won't admit it. Lose the formalities—you can call me 'Dad'."

"Dad!" Percy shouted, red in the face.

"Until next time son." He said, disappearing into the brine.

"Don't be a stranger!" Percy yelled back, turning around.

With an arm over Annabeth's shoulders once again to steady himself, he started, "Well, we defeated the threat, didn't get killed and started to end a feud lasting thousands of years."

"That pretty much sums it up."

"We should run away—go somewhere, just for tonight. Together."

"Are you _insane?" _Annabeth was bewildered in a calm way, "I'd like that."

And the rest of the night was filled with small talk, food, hot chocolate from street vendors and general exploring the city. A normal person would call it a date.

But us demigods... we aren't normal people.


End file.
